Tests of Faith - Pt 2

Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” So Abram went, as the LORD had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him. (Genesis 12:1-7 ESV). This is the first test of Abraham’s faith. God told him to leave his homeland, his family, and go to an unknown land. It was God asking him to place his future completely into His hands. During his 1960 presidential campaign, John F. Kennedy often closed his speeches with the story of Colonel Davenport, the Speaker of the Connecticut House of Representatives. One day in 1789, the sky of Hartford darkened ominously, and some of the representatives, glancing out the windows, feared the end was at hand. Quelling a clamor for immediate adjournment, Davenport rose and said, "The Day of Judgment is either approaching or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause for adjournment. If it is, I choose to be found doing my duty. Therefore, I wish that candles be brought." Rather than fearing what is to come, we are to be faithful till Christ returns. Instead of fearing the dark, we're to be lights as we watch and wait. I wonder if this is some of what Abraham must have felt in those days as he prepared for the journey. I know in my own life there have been times when the future was at best uncertain. The semester before I was to graduate from Southwestern Seminary I was asked to submit an application to the Division of Student Work with the BGCT. I was told that I would be a primary consideration as a candidate. Weeks passed and I heard nothing from that application. As graduation drew near with no prospects of a ministry position open to me, I remember vividly sitting on the bank of a small pond at a friend’s farm and trying to “listen” to God. My question was the same as it has often been, “Where?” Little did I know then that I was asking the wrong question. The test was never to be “where?” It was always “who?” God really didn’t need me to know the where. He merely asked me to trust the Who. I had resigned myself to staying in seminary and working on my doctorate without a place to go as the day of graduation approached. The day of graduation rehearsal I received a call from the director of student work explaining to me that they had somehow lost my application in a stack of papers and they wanted me to interview immediately. Ultimately I was asked to be a College Student Director with the BGCT and started less than three weeks later! God knew that all along. He just needed me to know that He could be trusted with the future. How about you? Do you trust Him with your future?