But I don't know where!?

"And he went out not knowing where he was going."

Hebrews 11:18

I am incredibly guilty of telling God how to define faith. I often bargain, plea, and beg for him to coordinate details to mirror the map I have marked in my head. I will give Him spreadsheets, deadlines, scrapbooks, and credit statements to show Him what is going to work best for my life.

Yet I also try to tell Him I have faith.

I believe that today we often settle for an abbreviated version of faith. We claim to believe God will provide, but we only step out to test that belief if a safety net is provided. Perhaps we believe God can provide, but if He doesn't then at least we won't lose our footing. We live our life built on conditional faith.

Faith isn't built by the strength of your safety net.

In the moments where I have had to have faith, I would often get frustrated when it seemed as if God wasn't acknowledging my bravery. I would get mad if I didn't get an immediate return on my investment. I would curl up my fist and pout to God thinking: Okay I did the hard thing, now where is my reward?

Oh silly Korinne, when will I learn that things are not on my timeline.

Hebrews 11 gives us a list of people that God commends for their faith. None of them had one foot in and one foot out. They understood that they were investing their life in this thing, and all of their confidence is hinging on God being who He claims to be. That took actions that the rest of us would consider reckless.

The story of Abraham gets wilder the closer we look at it.

His whole life was riding on the premise that God knew what He was doing.

He left his stability, wealth, and home because God told him to leave.

He believed his wife would give birth at 90 because God said she would.

He was willing to give up his son because God instructed him.

On the surface level, he looked like he lost his mind.

I sympathize with Abraham because I can picture what his conversations with God may have looked like. Hebrews 11:8 reads, "By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going."

The verse sticks out so vividly to me because Abraham already has to have so much faith by leaving his home AND he still has no clue where he is going. That had to have been TERRIFYING. He went to a foreign land living in tent fully led by his confidence in the Lord.

He didn't have the cues of what will happen next, he just listened. He left his safety net at home.

God loves this type of faith because it speaks to what we believe about Him. It is our action statement confessing that we believe He will do as He promised. It is us placing our feet on a rock saying that His words are stronger than our doubts. Faith is us keeping God accountable for who He has promised to be.

Abraham didn't know where he was going, but he still went.

Faith is scary, until you remind yourself who your God is.