Traveling Without A Map

Traveling without a Map

The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you.”

Genesis 12:1

It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going.

Hebrews 11:8

That is why I am suffering here in prison. But I am not ashamed of it, for I know the one in whom I trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until the day of his return.

2 Timothy 1:12

Before you go on a trip, does someone in your family study a map or perhaps print out a map from the computer that tells you every turn to take until you arrive at your destination? Can you imagine heading out on a trip with no idea where you’re going or how to get there?

When God called him, Abraham wasn’t a nice, godly Jewish boy. He came from a family of idol worshipers who didn’t know God. Yet when Abraham heard God telling him to leave his family and move to another country that God would show him later, Abraham just did it. He didn’t know where God was leading him, but he went because God told him to. That’s faith.

Living by faith is being willing to go when God clearly tells you to go, even when you don’t know where or what or when or how before you take your first step in obeying God. To follow Christ wherever he leads means we have to give up control, predictability, ease, and familiarity. Living by faith rarely feels comfortable. It means that we take a step forward in obedience, not because of our confidence in where we’re going, but because of our deep confidence in who is calling and leading us.

DISCUSSION STARTERS

What if someone told you to move across the country tomorrow? What reasons would you have for not going?

What excuses could Abraham have come up with not to go?

What do we know about God that should make us willing to go when he says to go?