How

Do you ever get overwhelmed thinking about life - how you're going to make it through the day and get everything done, how you're going to afford this or that, how you might handle hardship or tragedy, what you're going to do about your current employment situation, how you're going to reconcile with an estranged sibling, how you're going to raise godly children - the list could go on and on. Last entry I talked about what I do while driving - thinking and praying in most cases. The thinking aspect usually entails thoughts like the above which then leads to either worry or prayer.

Yesterday, Joel was preaching a sermon in Hebrews that took us back to Genesis 15 to God's covenant with Abram. Read the following ...

The Lord’s Covenant Promise to Abram

1 Some time later, the Lord spoke to Abram in a vision and said to him, “Do not be afraid, Abram, for I will protect you, and your reward will be great.”
2 But Abram replied, “O Sovereign Lord, what good are all your blessings when I don’t even have a son? Since you’ve given me no children, Eliezer of Damascus, a servant in my household, will inherit all my wealth. 3 You have given me no descendants of my own, so one of my servants will be my heir.”
4 Then the Lord said to him, “No, your servant will not be your heir, for you will have a son of your own who will be your heir.” 5 Then the Lord took Abram outside and said to him, “Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That’s how many descendants you will have!”
6 And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith.
7 Then the Lord told him, “I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land as your possession.”
8 But Abram replied, “O Sovereign Lord, how can I be sure that I will actually possess it?”
9 The Lord told him, “Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10 So Abram presented all these to him and killed them. Then he cut each animal down the middle and laid the halves side by side; he did not, however, cut the birds in half. 11 Some vultures swooped down to eat the carcasses, but Abram chased them away.
12 As the sun was going down, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a terrifying darkness came down over him. 13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “You can be sure that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land, where they will be oppressed as slaves for 400 years. 14 But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and in the end they will come away with great wealth. 15 (As for you, you will die in peace and be buried at a ripe old age.) 16 After four generations your descendants will return here to this land, for the sins of the Amorites do not yet warrant their destruction.”
17 After the sun went down and darkness fell, Abram saw a smoking firepot and a flaming torch pass between the halves of the carcasses. 18 So the Lord made a covenant with Abram that day and said, “I have given this land to your descendants, all the way from the border of Egypt to the great Euphrates River—19 the land now occupied by the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, 21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.”

Can you imagine what was going through Abram's mind? I wonder what he was thinking moments, days, weeks, even years from that particular event in his life. I wonder if he sat around trying to figure out how God was going to make all of this happen. We often read, however, that throughout his life Abram trusted God. Read Hebrews 11 for a concise synopsis. Abram believed that God would do what He said He would do - all Abram had to do was obey what God asked of him. And yes, that's often easier said than done.

I saw the movie Facing the Giants last weekend. I have a few critiques about it, but I have been reminded of the main message of the movie several times since then - trusting God through everything; praising Him through the joys and challenges of life. So when I look down the road one year, five years, ten years from now and wonder how we're going to manage this or that, I should come back to these wonderful stories in God's Word (and there are many of them) that remind me to trust Him. He alone knows the future, and even though I can do some things to prepare for that time, He is and always will be in control of all things. And whether the outcome is how I had hoped or not, I will praise Him.