Stepping Out On Faith

My husband and I went to church last night and we heard a sermon that touched us both.  She preached from Genesis 12: 1-5, and it talks about when God told Abram to leave his country and his father's house and head to Haran; a land that God was going to give to Abram.  Out of obedience Abram packed up his wife all of their possessions, Lot (his nephew) and his wife, all of their possession and their people.  Abram didn't question God but, instead stepped out on his faith and set out for a new adventure in Christ. 

What happens next is what seems to stifle, confuse and turn so many of us back.  After setting out with his family and all of their possessions, they shortly walked into a famine.  Now, what in the world was he supposed to do?  He was responsible for many people, they believed in his faith in God and now they are hungry and with little land to go around. This is where our faith really begins…Abram didn't give up; he didn't return home to what was familiar to him; instead he pressed on in Jesus name!  Because of his faith and obedience to God Abram was blessed beyond what he could have ever imagined; in fact, we to this day are blessed because of how Abram listened to God.  We can’t put God on a time limit, sometimes we have to endure some things before our blessings come to pass!

To know me is to know that I have a very hard time being social; me and a friend of mine have named ourselves socially awkward.  I seem to have such a hard time striking up everyday conversation or consoling someone unless I am around them on a regular basis.  Not because I'm not compassionate or don't want to, but because it's just hard for me.  I feel silly or maybe even worried that someone will think I sound stupid or simple.  So often times I will say something small and then just get a little quiet; until late in the year last year when God called me to step out on my faith. 

One day in church God gave me the idea to start a women's group.  A small group that would come together to Praise and worship Him, that would testify of His goodness as well as grow spiritually in Him and with each other.  He told me that this group would not just affect the few women that He named for me to put in the group, but that it would flow into our homes and touch our families.  He said that we would touch other women because of our faith in Him.  This was really a hard thing for me to do and looking back on it now, I realize that He blessed me by starting it off as a small group with women that I was pretty familiar with or close to. (Thank you Father).  This group consisted of an old friend, two new ones from work, my step children's mother and me.    We had our first and only meeting back in September and I can't even begin to tell you how good I felt after that meeting.  I was on a high that was straight from God, all the women were excited to see what God was going to do in us, through us and for His kingdom.

Then my family's life got turned upside down; my step son became terminally ill, relationships were lost and I allowed God's plan to fall by the wayside.  I couldn't understand what God was allowing to happen; I knew I had heard Him clearly and this was what He wanted me to do….so why would He allow such horrible things to happen?!?  I realize that these things may not have been directed at any one of us in particular, but they are things that occurred and affected the group.  My faith became shaken and I allowed other things to take over and I fell back into what was familiar and comfortable to me.  This was wrong, especially at a time when two of us could have really used the spiritual coming together of the group to help us get through this horrific time.

Here and there some of us would talk about starting the group up again and meeting, but nothing had been set in motion.  I realize this is my responsibility because it was something that God came to me with.  Now because of the sermon I heard last night and how it has renewed my faith and trust in God I will step back out on my faith and begin again. I am blessed because most of the women are still willing and wanting to rebuild what we started back in September. I’m praying that God will guide my every step because I know and trust that He cannot lie; I know we will all be richly blessed because of it.

Matthew 17:20 (NLT) ²⁰ “You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.”