Daily Light - January 8, 2011

Daily Light from the Lighthouse
40 Days of Faith

"By faith Abraham obeyed when we he was called

to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance.

And he went out, not knowing where he was going."

Hebrews 11:8

For every traveler there has always been a way to figure out which direction they were headed. Sailors would use the stars as their guide on the dark seas. The compass was the friend of the explorer that found himself in new territory. Today, the advances of technology have given us the GPS that can pinpoint where we are going and how to get there and back again.
Abraham was called by God out of a pagan environment to go to a land that was promised to him and his descendants, but he had no idea where this place was. God told him to pack every thing up and start moving. He did not know in what place he would settle. He had no idea what he would find when he got there. He left the familiarity of language, custom, and culture simply at the command of the Lord. This is faith on a grand scale!
It is a humanly fearful thing to walk by faith with no idea where you are going. We want God to reveal every thing for us so that we are not surprised by what is ahead. Some have often said that they would like to be able to see the future in order to be ready for what is ahead. There are two reasons why it is best that we do not know what the future holds. First, if we really knew some of the hardships that we would face, most of us would do every thing that we could to avoid them, or better yet, we would be too overwhelmed to live life. These "unexpected" hardships are often the greatest tools to teach us the lessons of life that God has prepared for us. If we avoid the lesson, then we miss the opportunity to grow in the Lord. Abraham would encounter numerous trials during his journeys to the land of promise, but these trials increased his faith in the Almighty.
Second, not knowing what the future holds for us forces us to live by faith each day. We have to be spiritually prepared for whatever may descend upon our lives. The key word to Abraham's life is found in the word "obeyed". We don't see him trying to squirm out of difficult places or manipulate his circumstances to his advantage. He accepted the unknown that God had called him to and found that God does all things well.
May you obey the voice of God today wherever it may lead!