Unchartered Territory

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. Hebrews 11:8-9

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were not the first European explorers to travel across North America and reach the Pacific Ocean.  Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, beat the other explorers by more than 275 years.  Cabeza was part of an expedition that landed in Tampa Bay in 1528 and explored present-day Louisiana and Texas for years before reaching the Pacific and eventually completing his journey in Mexico City.  Translations of Cabeza’s journals are a fascinating testimony.  For in spite of the hardships faced along the way and the constant uncertainty of their journey and destination, he never ceases to acknowledge God’s gracious hand at work.  He frequently writes of God providing, that it was Lord’s pleasure and other ways of affirming his faith and trust in God.

Abraham was called by God to go to a new country, truly entering a new world.  And yet, in faith, trusting in the One who bid him not to fear, Abraham went.   He went out to unchartered territory, untrodden paths and unknown perils.  But Abram heard God’s promise and believed.  He took God at His word and went forward in faith.  The writer to the Hebrews captures this same element in chapter eleven in the Old Testament cloud of witnesses.  It was simply by faith that Abraham set out on the journey.  There would be tests and trials along the way.  The evidence all seemed to suggest that he will be anything but the great nation that God had promised.  He was an old man with no descendant and yet he believed God’s promise to be true.  And so God gives him an heir, God makes him into a great nation and, most of all, God gives him a great inheritance.  Abraham believed and God credited it to Him as righteousness.  And so Abraham began his journey to unchartered territory.  And it was by faith that Abraham reached eventually reached the better country of the promised land with His God.

While these are uncertain times, we are blessed to walk each day by faith in Christ and the sure and certain promises that God has given to us.  May God bless and keep you as you continue on this journey by faith!

Prayer - Lord God, You have called Your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown.  Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that Your hand is leading us and Your love supporting us; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Fraternally in Christ,
President Lee Hagan