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Wednesday, 13 January 2010

Hebrews 11:8,9

We now come to the supreme example of faith in the Old Testament, Abraham. First he left his homeland and went to another place. This would be relevant to the Jewish Christians who must have felt they were abandoning the familiarity of Judaism when they became Christians.

Notice also that Abraham "went even though he did not know where he was going". There is a lot of nonsense talked about being specific, either knowing exactly what God wants you to do, or being specific in prayer. The truth is that there is no hard and fast rule on this matter. Sometimes God gives you immense detail, at other times He will tell you very little. Sometimes we should pray in precise detail for something, at other times we do not need to be specific. We have a relationship with God, not a legal contact.

Abraham made his home in the promised land even though he had not received it yet, and Isaac and Abraham did the same. Similarly, we are to live in the kingdom now. It will not be perfect, ie we will sometimes feel like we are living in tents rather than a house, but we are to dwell in it nevertheless, knowing that one day we will receive the kingdom in all its fulness.

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