The Bible is full of promises. Like full of them. Promises for Israel. Promises for Abraham, Isaac and David. Promises that have been fulfilled and promises yet to be met. And there are promises for you and for me.
My team spent the latter half of the month of November in Skopje, Macedonia. Our time there was spent living in a church that was located in the gypsy slum next to the dump. Literally, next to the dump. We helped with the soup kitchen feeding quite rambunctious gypsy kids. We also worked with a church near the center of Skopje, where we made Christmas cards and packed presents to go the parents of kiddos who would be receiving Operation Christmas Child boxes in January. (In Macedonia, Christmas is in January…curious.)
We learned many things through ministry in Macedonia, but one of the sweetest times of learning was during our morning team Bible study of Hebrews. Day by day and chapter by chapter, the Lord was faithful to reveal new things to us. Chapter 11, the faith chapter, struck a resounding chord with me.
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1
Faith, an assurance of things hoped for. This chapter contains a multitude of examples of people who possessed a steadfast assurance for things hoped for.
But this is what resonated:
These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, but having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on earth. Hebrews 11:13
Whoa. The Lord made promises to these people and they lived their lives in pursuit of those promises, but there were things they didn’t see fulfilled! Dang, that is faith. The Lord had such grand plans for these individuals, plans that consisted of things unseen. What if they hadn’t followed through, if they didn’t believe? What if Sarah didn’t believe that she could conceive in her old age? What if Abraham decided to not pursue the land of his inheritance because he didn’t know where he was going? As you read through the Old Testament you can see how the Lord’s plan is compounding, each layer building on each other leading to ultimate gift. There are so many individuals, generations even, that pursuit of promises that they didn’t see fulfilled and oh how sweet is that fulfillment.
Faith. Oodles of it.
So that got me thinking about my life. Yes, there are promises that I find in the Bible that the Lord has made to me but in my pursuit of a deeper relationship with Him, there are other promises that the Lord has revealed to me. What if one of those promises is to yield fruit far past the future that I can see, past my death even? Could I pursue that with a faith like Abraham? How do I pursue promises that the Lord had indicated that he will fulfill in my lifetime?
The Lord made me a promise. I was trying to figure how to fundraise $16,000 and what I could do to pay the amount that I didn’t raise. I was placing my faith in myself to make up the difference. The Lord spoke to me and said that my fundraising goal would be covered, all of it, and that there would not be a difference that I had to make up. My initial thought was “that’s crazy, did the Lord really just tell me that?”
I had two options. I could still try to figure out how I could pay the difference or I could have faith and believe the promise the Lord revealed to me. I had to have an assurance for things hoped for and rely on the Lord.
Here I sit, in the middle of December, in the middle of month 4 of my World Race in South Africa and I’m FULLY FUNDED. Did you catch that? Fully funded. The Lord is so good. Words really cannot express the myriad of emotions this fact yields, but I’ll try to name a few. Humbled. Honored. Overjoyed. Peace. Blessed. Grateful. Oh so so grateful.
Getting to this place was a journey. This promise didn’t mean that I didn’t have to do my part and fundraise, because I did a lot of that, but what it meant was that I wasn’t going to have to pull from my personal reserves to cover the $16,000. (Don’t worry, I’m using my personal reserves to cover other things.) You know how much of a struggle it is to not depend on yourself to meet a need? That’s where the faith comes in.
The Lord fulfills his promises, on his timeline and not my own. My job is to draw near to him, place my hope in him and to be obedient. If the Lord is asking you to do something, there really is only one option. You have to be obedient.
And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. Hebrews 11: 6
I send HUGE-mongous thank you to everyone who participated in my fundraising journey. If you donated, I can’t say thank you enough. Every dollar and pennies placed in a jar made a difference. If you helped with organizing a fundraiser or was up before the crack of dawn to help me with my yard sale or any other crazy fundraising idea I put together, you are a blessing to me in ways more than you could ever know. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! I love you all!!
