Trust, Patience, and Abraham

I have a really nasty habit of becoming restless.  I am sure it is not all bad, as it is the restless who often are motivated to get things done.  However, it is also the restless who struggle with discontentment and impatience.  I like new.  And I LOVE exciting.  Put the two together and you have my undivided attention.  Give me too much of the norm, same ol' same ol' thing, and I get droopy, bored, and restless. 

This past week, I found myself once again feeling restless.  I spent some time talking to God about it.  Laid it all out about how I was feeling. "God, I want more and I want to be part of something great and big for you."  The issue took me to my knees and in prayer and tears I become overcome with more, Jesus I just want more of you.  Everything else, my boredom, restlessness, and the many thoughts running through my head began to disappear as I realized my desire was simply for more of Jesus.  But one thought remained.  Jiggling and clanking around in the back of my mind.  "God I want to be part of something great for you." 

I am not going to try and figure out if this is a good or bad desire, because the point is what God spoke to me and has continued to speak to me since then.  Two simple phrases.  Listen. To My. Voice.  Follow. My. Voice.  "That's it?!  Just listen?  Just follow?  But the things you have given me to do, the things I have to do, they are not earth shattering and heaven shaking!"  And that is when He brought a wonderful, faithful, friend of His to my mind.  Remember Abraham?  All He did was listen to My voice and followed my voice by obeying me.  Earth was shattered and heaven was shaken.  My mind went back to what I had read that morning in Genesis.  God asked Abraham to leave his family, his land, his home, his everything and travel till God told him where to stop.  I suppose Abraham could have said, "I don't see the point in this.  What will me leaving my home accomplish for you?"  But Abraham didn't ask that.  He simply listened and followed the voice of God.  Later, God gave Abraham a promise that He would give him a son and make him the father of a countless nation.  Abraham, though he did laugh a bit and question this idea, could have said, "this is unthinkable.  Undoable.  I'm not even going to try."  But that isn't what Abraham did.  He listened and followed the voice of God.  I realize Abraham made mistakes and didn't always do things perfectly, but he did have a measure of faith, trust, and patience that led him into the promise and the will of God for his life. It led him to being called the friend of God.

My point?  I need that.  I want that.  Patience for the ideas and promises God has laid on my heart.  Abraham waiting a LONG time for Isaac.  A long time.  But God was faithful, in His time, to fulfill His promise to Abraham.  I desire to trust that what God has asked me to do, commissioned me to do, prompted me to do is for a purpose and a reason.  It is for my own good, but more importantly it is fulfilling God's purpose on earth through me.  Just like Abraham trusted that God knew what He was doing when He told Abraham to move. 

My encouragement to myself and to anyone who reads this:  God has a purpose for your life.  Those things He has called you to, no matter how small or insignificant they seem to you, become earth shattering and heaven shaking when you walk in them in love and obedience to your heavenly Father.  Those dreams He has placed in your heart?  Don't worry.  He placed them there and He will fulfill them in His timing.  Trust Him.  Listen to His voice.  Faithfully follow His voice.  Patiently wait for the fulfillment of His Word. 

What He has started He will bring to completion in and through you.  And what He has spoken will not return to Him void. 

Patiently Trust.  Listen.  Follow.