My eldest son seemed agitated, so I asked him what was bothering him. “I’m nervous about high school,” he admitted. In his mind, high school was a big, scary place—with foreboding dark towers housing fearsome teachers.
But then we went along to the open evening. He met friendly staff and helpful students, whilst discovering welcome opportunities for sport. “I’m excited,” he told me as we turned to leave. “There’s so much to do here!”
Do you recognise this fear of the unknown? We create nightmarish scenarios in our minds, wishing we could see what’s coming next. Yet Abraham is commended in Scripture for having faith in the face of the unknown. “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” (Hebrews 11:8).
The key is that Abraham “obeyed and went”. The place ahead might have been unknown, but the One he was travelling with and obeying wasn’t. Even amid unknowns, Abraham looked forward to the certainty of eventually arriving at the heavenly city, “whose architect and builder is God” (v. 10).
None of us can see what lies ahead; the unknown is daunting. But we know the One who is with us. God will walk each uncertain step with us until we see Him face to face in the city where He will dwell with us forever.
By Chris Wale
REFLECT & PRAY
What unknowns are playing on your mind? How can you direct your thoughts instead towards God and His faithfulness?
Dear God, I am so thankful that I have a certainty within all of life’s unknowns: You are with me, and You are everything I need.
SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
Followers of Jesus wait for the day when we will be with Him—the fulfilment of what we’ve spent our lives pursuing. We rightfully yearn to be “home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8). The troubles we have in this life make our desire that much sharper and earnest. Today’s passage isn’t about forgetting the world we live in and thinking only of heaven; it’s about seeing our present life from the perspective of the life to come. Paul reminded us that our current troubles are not worth comparing to what is to come (Romans 8:18).
J.R. Hudberg
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