Crossing the Faith Frontier Requires RELOCATION
Our motivation to hit the trail comes from the greater vision God puts in our hearts.
It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith—for he was like a foreigner, living in tents . . . . Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations (Hebrews 11:8-10).
Abraham received the dream-come-true calling of any pioneer—to head west and claim land! But it’s the second part that makes his call more difficult, and why, upon obeying God, Abraham took on the moniker “the father of faith.” He was to be a man who “went without knowing where he was going.”
Can you imagine? A wealthy man with a large household, extended family, growing investments, multiplying farm animals, community respect … suddenly up and leaving most of it behind, choosing a nomadic lifestyle? Living in tents? Based on what, exactly? An entirely non-specific promise?
Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous (Romans 4:3; cf. Genesis 15:6).
Movement and change are intrinsic features of the faith frontier journey. There’s no way to remain still and yet also walk by faith. This doesn’t always mean physically or vocationally moving from one thing to another, but it will at a minimum involve movement and change of the heart. It will mean relocating the affections and priorities of our hearts from the promise of this world to the promise of the next.
Like Abraham, we can allow our faith in what God will do in the future to trump our attachments to whatever we are enjoying in the present. We can decide to focus on the “city with eternal foundations” and pursue our treasures there, not here.
That’s when the trail life of risk and sacrifice start to make sense. That’s when our hearts fill with joy, not because of an easy journey, but because of our confidence in what God will do and where His leadership will take us.
- Is my Christian life “on the move”?
- When was the last time I ventured out beyond life as usual, for Christ?
- Where is my heart most at home, in this world or in the next?
- What could I do to practice relocating my priorities toward the future?