Hebrews 11:1 and 6 and 8

Carl Belcher exhorts us to have the faith to follow wherever God leads.

Carl Belcher

I don't know if like me you like adventures, but one of my favourite things to do when I'm on holiday, is to explore new places. I usually download a map on my phone and work out where I want to start walking and where would be a good place to end, (usually close to a good café or pub!). I make sure that I've got the right gear that I'll need for the journey and calculate the time it's going to take to get there.

Other times I just go for a wander, find a path or trail and then think, "I wonder where this goes?" and go exploring into the unknown.

One person in the Bible who personifies this journeying into the unknown is Abraham. He truly personified what it means to trust and have faith.

One of my favourite scriptures is found in Hebrews 11:1 and 6 where it says:

"...faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible".

"....without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him".

Note that it doesn't say that God rewards those who always do the right thing, who are blameless or holy. But it says that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.

Isn't that amazing? He's not looking for perfect people who get it right ever time, but those who are seeking Him; people who are trying to listen to His voice and be willing go wherever He leads them.

For me the main focus of Abraham's journey isn't about the fact that he followed God, but about the way he did it.

Hebrews 11 goes on to say in verse 8:

"...Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going".

He didn't know where the journey would end, why God wanted him to go there, or how, but he followed God anyway.

Sometimes God tells us to do something, or go somewhere, and we only find out the reason why or what's next once we've been obedient and reached the destination!

In our humanity, we tend to be reticent to reach out for the greater thing that God may have for us in case it doesn't come through; or we can easily get worried that we may even lose what we had before. So we often play safe, settle for the familiar, never knowing what amazing things were waiting for us if we had trusted and followed where God was inviting us to go.

We often hear the phrase 'stepping out of your comfort zone' and it's easy to think that this is a singular choice, that once we've made that, we can tick that off the to-do list. The reality is that it's not. As soon as we step out in faith, that experience enlarges our comfort zone, the edge moves a little further away and so we have a new line to cross again!

So where could God be calling you to right now? Where might you have created 'this far and no further' boundaries in your life?

I encourage you today, listen for His voice, make the choice to follow where He leads you and trust that He really will reward you as you earnestly seek Him.