Faith and Courage Go Hand-in-Hand

Scripture Reading

Hebrews 11:1, 7, 8, 11, 17

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

7 By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.

8 By faith 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.

11 And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise.

17 By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son

Devotional

Faith is all about assurance of what we know although we cannot see it. Hebrews 11 gives quite a few examples of people who had tremendous faith. For the purpose of this devotional, I only picked a handful of them, but there is a clear underlying theme. When God asks you to do something, you won’t know much about the plan if anything beyond the first step, it may seem impossible, people may think you’re crazy, but it’s all part of his plan and to demonstrate his glory. Let’s take a look at some of the examples above.

Noah, who had never seen rain before was told by God to start building an ark on a mountain because water would start pouring from the sky and would flood the Earth. First of all, no one even knew what an ark was, but if it was for floating on top of the water that everyone knew at that time came up from the ground (ref. Genesis 2:5), then it would seem only logical to build it on or near the ground. There’s no doubt people had to think Noah was absolutely crazy. Yet, he followed God’s instructions in building the ark on the mountain in anticipation of the great flood. Now, let’s take a look at Abraham’s life.

When God told Abraham to pick up and leave, Abraham trusted God so much that he left without even knowing where he was headed. He left the comfort of his own home and his country because God said “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.” God also promised him that we would make him a great nation and his descendants would be as numerous as the stars. He lived in tents traveling from place to place based on this promise. Then later God promises Abraham a son. That seems all and well, but then years and years go by and next thing you know Abraham is 100, Sarah is 90 and she’s giving birth to their first son Isaac. But that’s not even the end of Abraham’s testimony. After waiting all of those years for his first and only son, God tells him to sacrifice him and Abraham follows through and almost kills his son because he believes that God will keep his promise. He knows that he cannot be made into a great nation without a son and he’s about 137 years old at this point. What’s not often mentioned is that his son, Isaac, was only 37 when he was going to be sacrificed. This is interesting because it goes without saying that Isaac, if he did not trust his father and God, would’ve easily been able to escape or overpower Abraham and yet he lets him tie him up and put him on the altar. Fortunately, an angel intervenes right as Abraham is about to sacrifice Isaac because he has more than proven his faith.

So, what can we learn from Noah, Abraham, Sarah and Isaac’s faith? In each of those cases, the following things were true:

1. While God’s promises are amazing, what God asked each person to do doesn’t make any sense from a human perspective

2. It took serious courage to step out in faith and also to stay strong in faith

3. God did not communicate with any of them on a frequent or regular basis making it even more challenging to keep strong

4. God’s fulfillment of a promise may not come with a timeline

5. When God makes a promise, only he can fulfill it

What this is saying to us as believers is that we can fully trust God and his promises will always be fulfilled. Sometimes the things God asks us to do may make no sense to us because we don’t see the entire plan, we only see the present circumstance. The only thing we can do is step out in faith. Secondly, God probably isn’t going to hold our hand the entire time he asks us to do something. When he asks or commands us to do something, he expects us to follow through in faith. Don’t expect a phone call from God every day for a strategy tag-up. Thirdly, God’s timing is not our timing. We may find ourselves in the midst of situations and saying “okay God, anytime you want to fulfill that promise would be great,” but you can be assured that he will always be on time. Lastly, when God asks you to do something, know that you’re not doing it on your own. God will bless and provide for you to do the task he has set out for you. Without God, you would fail, but nothing is impossible when God is on your side. His plans never fail and his promises are always fulfilled. That’s something to be excited about it. For more on what God promises us in the Bible, I encourage you to check out this link: https://www.gotquestions.org/promises-of-God.html

Prayer

Father God, thank you for being faithful to us and being a God who we can always count on. Lord, I pray that if you have called me to do something that I would find the courage to do it without question even if it defies all logic. I pray that if I’m in the midst of waiting on your promise to be fulfilled that the Holy Spirit would comfort me and your Word will remind that there’s nothing to fear because you are a God that is never early nor late. Your timing is always perfect and in accordance to your plan. In Jesus’ name, Amen.