Bible Reading: Genesis 12v1-9

"The Lord had said to Abram, ‘Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.

2 ‘I will make you into a great nation,
    and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
    and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
    and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
    will be blessed through you.’

4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. 5 He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.

6 Abram travelled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said, ‘To your offspring I will give this land.’ So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

8 From there he went on towards the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord.

9 Then Abram set out and continued towards the Negev."

What strikes you as you read those opening verses of Genesis 12?  It is quite a call isn't it?  Abram leave behind everything you have known, your security and your comfort, you friends and family, the familiar and the friendly, and follow me.  That sounds like a ridiculous thing to ask someone to do, until you read who it is that is calling Abram to do this.  Notice the "I will" that ground the first three verses.  God is promising to Abraham that he can rely on him.  I will show you the land, I will make you a great nation, I will bless you, I will bless those who bless you, I will curse those who curse you.  This does not depend on Abraham, this depends on God.  Abraham can act and put his faith in God because he knows it is the "God of glory" (Acts 7v2) who calls him.  This is not a leap in the dark this is a step of faith, an act of trust in the one who speaks and reveals himself.  Abram's faith is not recorded with great fanfare or elaborate prose but simply "So Abram went, as the LORD had told him".

He could go because he knew the glory of the one who called him and promised to be with him and guide him and protect him and bless him.  This was not a risk in one sense though it was not without risk in another.  Faith trusts in the character of God.  Faith takes God at his words and reads the future in light of God's glory and sovereignty.  And so Abram gathers and departs and he journeys from place to place, journeying on, obeying God's call.  God meets with him on the way and Abram calls on God on the way.  His pilgrimage isn't done alone, God doesn't call and then leave, God goes with those he has called to the place where he calls them.

Faith takes God at his word.  Faith puts belief into action.  Faith knows God and enjoys God not just at the destination but throughout the journey.