Believe God

Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness. (Genesis 15:6 NIV)

Living out our part of a God-sized vision is not about how well we can dream.  It’s about how faithfully we believe.  Every example we have of a God-sized vision in Scripture is revealed by God to His people.  They don’t need to put together project plans with Gantt charts and budgetary constraints.  They simply need to believe what God says and then do what God tells them.  That was the case for Abram.  That was the case for Moses.

Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, "Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning. When the LORD goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down. (Exodus 12:21-23 NIV)

The Israelites could have lost over 22,000 firstborn children that night.  The angel of death was coming through the towns of Israel in the same way that it went through the land of Egypt.  Their children couldn’t be protected by swords and spears.  Even modern-day machine gun fire wouldn’t have been enough to keep them safe.  There was only One who was able to keep their children from death.  That One was God.  In order to save their own children, the Israelites needed to believe God…and obey.

"Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. When you enter the land that the LORD will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. And when your children ask you, 'What does this ceremony mean to you?' then tell them, 'It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.'" Then the people bowed down and worshiped. The Israelites did just what the LORD commanded Moses and Aaron. (Exodus 12:24-28 NIV)

They obeyed, so their children lived.

How about you?  Do you take God at His Word?  Do you believe Him?  Do you believe Him enough to obey?