By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. (Hebrews 11:8-10)

Abraham – Faith Leaves Everything Behind

Abraham was a man of faith who believed in the promises of God. His faith was like that of Abel, Enoch, and Noah, who understood the importance of true worship. Abraham was a man who trusted what God said to be the right answer regardless of what human wisdom would suggest. Moses writes that Abraham was seventy-five years old when God called him. Abraham’s calling was not just to move his family from one place to another. God tested Abraham’s faith by telling him to go out to a place to receive an inheritance without knowing where that place was and the purpose of the promise. Abraham could not imagine it would take twenty-five years for the reality of God’s promise to be fully shown in the birth of Isaac.

Faith is not an act that a man does without some evidence. There is an invisible attribute of the character of God that is embraced without doubt and becomes evidentiary. Abraham’s faith did not develop when he was seventy-five. Abraham’s life was dedicated to worshiping God in spirit and truth and trusting that what God promised was real. Abraham had a history with the Lord. He relied on that history to formulate his faith that when the Lord came to him and told him to go out to a place he would receive as an inheritance, he immediately took up the journey without knowing where he was going. Why would Abraham take his family and make such a journey? His faith had been established that God’s word was always right. He did not understand the motives behind the request of the Lord, but he did not argue. There was no reason to argue because he acted as a man who knew God was right about everything.

Abraham would live to be one hundred and seventy-five years old. God called him at seventy-five, but the promise of Isaac was not fulfilled until Abraham turned one hundred. He would live another seventy-five years after the promise of a son was fulfilled. Isaac was seventy-five when his father died. The final one hundred years of his life were spent living in tents in a land he never possessed as his own or realized the formation of a nation from his seed. Of the three promises God gave Abraham, he only realized one but gained the others in faith. He did not complain to God about coming up short on the promises. The Lord had told him the land of Canaan would be given to him and that his seed would make a great nation. On a starlit night, God told Abraham his seed would be as numerous as the stars in the heavens. Abraham did not live long enough to realize those promises but gained them in faith.

The faith of Abraham believed in something he did not see but knew by the word of God that all that was promised by the Lord was true. Hope springs from the fountain of faith, pouring the waters of belief in the heart to wait for something unseen. It is real because God promised it. Abraham looked for the city of hope, whose builder and maker is God, and upon the foundation of belief, made the promises true. That is our faith. There are many promises God has made, and He will keep all those promises if we have faith like Abraham. My faith must be that I am willing to leave everything to gain Christ. The land of promise is yet to come. We see that promise realized by faith and live each day with great faith like Abraham. Pack your bags. We have somewhere to go.