Eric and Lisa

Here are some highlights from our pastor's sermon from yesterday:
God said to Abram, "Abandon it all so that I can bless you."

1. Trust Me with your unknown future (Genesis 12:1-9). God asked him to leave his home and go to unfamiliar territory.
2. Trust Me when you're most vulnerable (Genesis 12:10-20). Famine came upon the very land that God told Abram to go to, so Abram had to move again, this time to Egypt. However, while he was there, he tried to take matters into his own hands to make himself less vulnerable.
3. Trust Me when the promise seems outrageous or impossible (Genesis 15:1-6; 17:1-8 & 15-19). Abram couldn't believe that God was really serious, but he chose to act out his faith anyway because he trusted God.

Things to notice from these passages:

* There were large spaces of time between these conversations, perhaps because Abram had to have faith that God was going to do what He said. God probably didn't speak to him in this way on a regular basis.
* God is more often in the silence than in the speaking -- that's how faith grows.
* Don't go overboard with attributing your decisions to God "telling" you to -- God doesn't speak that way most of the time. Instead, He usually speaks to us in other ways: when we follow His will; when we live in the Spirit, make a decision, and trust that He is sovereign; and when we are in a community of faith.

An example from the New Testament: Acts 15, the Council at Jerusalem. The council said, "It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us..." They could have had Peter address the Church and say, "God told us to do such and such...", but they instead acknowledged that a lot of decisions are based on faith rather than an audible "word from God."

Faith and trust are inextricably linked. You cannot have faith in God if you don't trust Him.

It's kind of like a little girl who throws caution to the wind and jumps because she is fully confident that her father will catch her -- because He's done it in the past.

Our faith in God is based on our past relationship with Him. Think about the many times that He's come through for us in the past and guided us in the right direction! We can certainly trust Him.