More than words

The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.” So Abram departed as the Lord had instructed. Genesis 12:1-4

All Abraham had was a promise. That’s it. He didn’t get a certificate or earnest money or any collateral. All he had was God’s word, the word of a God he didn’t necessarily even know.

Actually, Abraham had something else. Something even better than a bank note. He had faith – belief in something unseen, not yet realized, that caused him to move. His belief that God would make good on His promise precipitated an incredible journey.

If we trust that goodness and mercy are coming after us, we’re free to leave everything that’s familiar, whatever is in our past. Our bondage to what is can be broken so that we can pursue what God promises will be.

Abraham didn’t know the specifics of God’s plan for him. At times his way seemed not just clouded, but completely obscured. And so God appeared to him again.

“He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:5-6). God put credit for right-ness in Abraham’s account because he took God at His word.

Even still Abram’s next question is, “Sovereign Lord, how can I know?” (Genesis 15:8) We understand this question, even as we strive for faith. The promise looks so good – how can we know that it’s more than words? God says, “I know the plans I have for you. They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11). God knows, but we don’t.

So the question is, do we believe Him? Will we make the gamble that God is always planning the next chapter for our joy? He can’t help Himself – love, mercy, kindness are His very character. Will we stake our lives on the promise that He’s writing us into the magnificent story of His redemption of all things? In ALL His works, the impossibly hard ones as well as the pleasant ones, His purposes are for the good and happiness of His people. Of you. Of me.

He will come through for you. He will never leave you. He will never abandon you. He is always, always, always, working for the good and blessing of His beloved children. This is the way, the manner in which God loves us – He gave His only Son to purchase our freedom and forgive our debt SO THAT we won’t be destroyed, but we will live a full, rich, abundant, soul-satisfying life.

It’s good that God planned for Abraham, and for us. More good than his lifetime could contain. More good than our lifetime can contain. Only heaven is big enough to store the whole harvest of abundance God has planned. It says so in His word – “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 1:9).

He is able to accomplish infinitely more (immeasurably more, far more abundantly, exceedingly above, exceeding abundantly, so much more, above and beyond, greater, infinitely beyond, superabundantly more) than we would ever dare to ask or hope. Ephesians 3:20, my amplification