Several years ago American express coined a phrase that has become very meaningful to me recently: don't leave home without it. Their point is that:
Abram lived in Ur, a large metropolitan city, with his extended family. He was quite comfortable thank you very much. He had a great marriage, nice extended family, a comfortable house, a good job, lots of cultural and civilized activities there to occupy his interest and time. The only thing lacking in Abram's life was the fact that he had no children. In particular, he had no son to carry on the name and to be his heir.
That fact notwithstanding, Abram had a good life in Ur. Why would he ever want to leave? He heard God call and he responded in faith. It is that simple. And because of that, God established a covenant with Abram, changed his name to Abraham, gave him not only one son but two and fulfilled the terms of his covenant With Abraham.
The writer of Hebrews says this about Abraham. By faith Abraham: 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...later it says that he was still living by faith when he died. He did not receive (fully what had been promised. He only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. Abraham is a model and champion of what it means to live by faith. He along with all those listed in Hebrews 11, is one of the great cloud of witnesses cheering you on in your quest to live by faith. If Abram were still alive today, he would say to you don't leave home without it...no he would say you can't leave home without it.
Paul writes that faith comes by hearing and hearing comes by the word of God. Faith is not something that originates in the heart of a human being. It originates in the heart and mind of God. When God speaks, faith is formed in the person to hear and receive.
In Abram's case, he was happy and content to live his life peacefully in Ur. But God shatters the calm and comfort and says leave your family, leave your home, leave the comforts of city life and move out to the desert where there is nothing to do, no water, no plentiful food supply, not many other people.
That is not a real enticing call is it. And yet faith would never have been formed had not God called him. So it is today. God calls you to believe and follow his son Jesus Christ. On your own, without God S initiative and call, faith would not be possible. But God makes it possible and forms that believing following faith in your life when God calls you.
They had more applicants than they could deal with in some ways that was what Gods call to Abram was. A Challenging call with few rewards. But God promised him that he would father a son, that he would thus become the ancestor of a great nation whose descendants would equal the number of grains of sand on the ocean. Most importantly God promised Abram, as he promises each of us, to be our God.
When we come to communion by faith we come knowing that it is a call to costly discipleship. That Jesus calls us to remember and follow him; dying to self but rising to a new life in which the Lord promises to live with us each day.
You see, when God calls us, we are forced to make a choice of trust. The bottom line is this: do we trust the character of the God who calls us to a life of faith.
We might look to past experience and say that yes God has always proved faithful in the past. I am sure that my faith is well placed because I know that God has never let me down yet.
Or we might not see with such certainty. We may have doubts. And then it is a matter of saying if God is who God says God is, then I can trust in that God.
It is important to note that nowhere does the word of God place a premium on the size or magnitude of a persons faith. Jesus said we can only enter the kingdom if we have the innocent simple faith of a little child. He taught his disciples that the size of ones faith is not the issue. If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can move mountains or do anything in my name.
You see the critical issue of faith is not the size of your faith in God. It is the size of the God in whom you put your faith.
My faith is small and weak. But the God I believe in is enormous. My own strength is puny, but God's strength is incredible.
I may not always be able to see the end result of my life or know the final outcome of what has been promised to me. But I know God through Jesus Christ and I see God. That is why the writer of Hebrews says that in order to run the race with perseverance and finish it, we must keep our eyes focused on Jesus the author and perfector of our faith the character of God, not our own ability to believe, is the focus of our faith.
When that is true, it doesn't matter what in life may come. Your faith will overcome because God is able and is your focus.
It does not matter what obstacles present themselves as barriers. God who called you is faithful and has promised you.
Let God be God. If God is truly God, then that is enough for God is then transcendent, all powerful, all knowing, everywhere present, completely loving and completely just.
By faith, we offer our lives to God, believing that God will raise us up and will not let us be put to shame or allow our enemies to triumph over us. And in fact God does provide and raise us up. God does give our lives back to us by having given us his own dear son Jesus Christ as the atoning sacrifice for our sin and as the only way to be reconciled to God.
Paul writes to the romans that by faith it was credited to Abraham as righteousness. You see Abraham did not find favor with God by doing anything but by believing and trusting. It was faith that caused him to obey Gods call and it was faith that was credited to him as righteousness.
That in fact is exactly what a credit card does isn't it. When you present it to a merchant, even though they do not know you, they will extend credit to you because you are trusted by the credit company.