"Where Are You Thinking?"

Hebrews 11.8; 15-16a NIV

“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.”

“If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country — a heavenly one”.

On his long trek from Ur to Haran and then to Canaan, Abraham remained focused on the call of God. If he had lamented the loss of his former life and thought too long about ‘the good old days,’ Abraham might have given up and gone home. Was the “promised land” really the fulfillment of a glorious “inheritance” or would he be just another “stranger in a foreign country” (Hebrews 11.9)? Would Abraham trust the word God gave him?...

“The Lord had said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your people

and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.’”
Genesis 12.1

Abraham heard, “obeyed and went.” Abraham was “longing for a better country” (Hebrews 11.16). He was not “thinking of the country [he] had left.” As a ‘forward thinker,’ Abraham accepted the risks, opposition, discomfort, and hardships which paved the way to “his inheritance.” He “did not know where he was going” but he went there anyway!

We naturally resist God’s call because it almost always involves change. Change is abhorrent to the carnal man who must remain comfortable at all costs. Comfort is an idol. It must be destroyed if you are to enjoy the promises of God. Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters” (Matthew 6.24). I cannot satisfy both the god of comfort and the God of the Universe who calls me to places unknown.

Stepping out in faith is more than uncomfortable. It’s frightening. The journey of faith is equally as threatening. If I think too long about ‘the way things used to be’ I might forget the promise, abandon the journey, and go back home. I can easily fool myself by thinking ‘the good old days’ were better than they really were.

Where are you thinking? Behind or ahead? Fill your mind with what’s in front of you. Consider the brightness of your future. Place your hope on the promise of something better. Mentally embrace the next place, not the past place.

“Do not say, ‘Why is it that the former days were better than

these?’ For it is not from wisdom that you ask about this.”

Ecclesiastes 7.10 NASU