31 January 2015 - promise-cuous

We are called to have faith this morning. But why? Why do we need it? Does it make a real difference?

Yes, because like Abraham we are all on a journey to our promised inheritance. We all journey toward this city with foundations whose architect and maker is God. But like Abraham we don't really know where we are to go. We need faith to sojourn successfully.

Yes, because like the disciples we all find our boats tossed by violent squalls. The waves break and we seem to sink. Without enough faith we give in to fear. We let circumstances terrify us. We need faith to have peace even during the storms. We need faith to entrust our voyage to Jesus.

"Why are you terrified?
Do you not yet have faith?"
They were filled with great awe and said to one another,
"Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?"

We need faith because we see and greet the promise from afar before we receive it. We see a heavenly homeland in the distance. Faith guides us to that distant shore. Without faith as a beacon we risk being lost at sea.

Just as it does for Abraham, faith helps us to realize that even death can't stop God's promise for us.

He reasoned that God was able to raise even from the dead, 
and he received Isaac back as a symbol.

It is because of this that faith is able to make a genuine difference in our lives. Death no longer has the last word. We have something greater to guide us. By faith Jesus is able to "free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death" (cf. Heb. 2:15).

So let us trust in God's promise. May it bring us guidance. May it help us to fix our hearts on things which truly last. And as it does, may we receive the freedom it offers.

This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
to set us free from the bonds of our enemies,
free to worship him without fear,
holy and righteous in his sight
all the days of our life.