Whereby Shall I Know?

Whereby Shall I Know? 

Learning to Trust God’s Providence | Genesis 15:1–21 

Pastor Jake Reid • Sunday, October 18, 2026 • Clean Transcript 

If you'd take the scriptures and turn with me to Genesis chapter 15. Genesis chapter 15. Every one of you sitting there thinking, "Genesis didn't sound like Ephesians today." 

To Ephesians, but, today I want us to go to Genesis 15 

This week to make sure that what's in my heart is not just Jake blabbering, but, what, I don't know, what the Lord's doing on a, on a bigger scale. And so as we, open the word today, I wanna take you to a passage that through the years, some of you that have been around here for a while have heard from this passage a few times. 

For some of you that are newer to us, this passage as far as dealing with it may be, fresher to you. But as, my attention kinda turned this way, the Lord was kinda teaching me things from this text that I've never seen before. And it's, isn't that amazing? You read a passage at different seasons, and when you read it in a different season, the Lord has a way of teaching you things that were always there that you just never saw or never appreciated before. 

And, - You know, this week I've, I've, I've done a lot of thinking, and I've done a l- a lot of praying. And you say, "Well, you should do that every week." You're right. I agree with you, I should. but maybe in a little more focused way than others. because the circumstances of this week have brought a reality to us as a church family that is, it's just a new world. 

And today, we, -- I am, I am so excited to take you all over and show you what God has handed to us. Amen. But before I do that, I want us to understand that what the Lord's doing in this church is far more than a piece of property. Mm-hmm. It's bigger than having a place that we could work on and make our future home, and that's where we'll be until the Lord comes back for us. 

It's bigger than that. Because what we need is not what's in our power to accomplish. That's what we need 

We, in our power, we could go turn a warehouse into a beautiful building. In our power, we could make everything look the part and sound the part, and that's our-- that's, that's within our power. Look around at the, at the buildings and properties all around our community. Those properties weren't done with maybe... 

Not all of them were done with a mind toward the Lord. They represented what human power and ingenuity and dollars and dollars and dollars and dollars and dollars can accomplish. But as we enter into a new phase of, opportunities that the Lord brings our way What has brought us thus far is what will carry us on the rest of the way. 

And that is the subject that I believe is covered in Genesis chapter 15. I think it's fitting today to really deal with something like this because it calls us to take steps of obedience. It causa- causes us to exercise trust and faith on a day when we have, folks gathered with us who in just a few moments plan to take an outward, like an outward step of obedience that resembles the inward reality of their hearts. 

And, that's what baptism is. It is an outward symbol of that inward reality. And because of all of those things, my attention this week was directed back to this passage. And, so we're gonna walk through the text, and if it takes us two weeks to do it will take us two weeks to do it. you know, I'm not afraid of that. 

But, there's some things I wanna point out to you, and there's some other things that I wanna, just Talk to you about. Let's pray before we get into it Our Father, we bow this morning so grateful The songs that we sing together are the reality of our hearts, the reality of our lives. It's bigger than just 

Words that we recite as we gather together. These are truths that we are living. And I thank you. I thank you for your work Oh, for grace and faith to trust you more As we open your word, Father, by the power of your Spirit, as you, as the Lord Jesus promised, would you once again today cause your words to capture our attention, that we would see you We live in light of that revelation today. 

We pray it in Christ's name. Amen. Okay, Genesis chapter 15. A little background so you understand before we get too far into the text here. Genesis cha- chapter 15 is one of the most consequential chapters in the Bible. If you were to take all the chapters that cover all the important things, every one of them find their root in Genesis 15. 

It reaches backward to the first three chapters of the Bible. It reaches forward all the way to eternity when Christ is crowned and reigns and rules. This chapter touches every aspect of the Bible. There's not one part of it you can't get some grasp on from what is in this text. It is that consequential. 

Now, I know the danger is, the danger's like, "Well, yeah, you're the preacher, and the preacher's always gonna get up here and say, 'This is the most important thing.'" I get it. I understand. but I'll say it again today. This is the most important, most consequential chapter in the Bible because within this chapter, we have what is known and what has been considered as what is the Abrahamic covenant. 

The Abrahamic covenant. In this covenant, in this chapter, we find the foundational and greatest covenant God made to sinners, that He would save them by His grace and through faith. That is the core of what we find in this text. How God goes about bringing this covenant into reality, this consequential moment on which we can relate to God, how He goes about bringing that into a reality is absolutely and completely relatable to every single one of us. 

That's the context that will get us into it. Now, a bit more about the covenant. This covenant is the foundation of God's redemptive work. It expands on the promise that God made in the garden when He said after the fall that there would be a seed of the woman that would destroy Satan and be the rescuer of humanity, picturing forward to Christ. 

That seed w- of the woman would be fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus Christ. There are three main promises in the Abrahamic covenant: That God would give Abraham and his descendants a land, which is a literal place that he will define in this passage as being from Egypt to the Euphrates. He promised him descendants. 

He promised him a seed. This is literal descendant, from his marriage union to Sarah. There would be a child born to Abraham and Sarah through which he would fulfill this promise. And then ultimately, a blessing, a literal blessing to all the families of the earth, that God promises in Genesis chapter 12 to make this one man a blessing to every nation, every person- On earth. 

How is that fulfilled? In the person and work of Jesus Christ. God, who took on flesh, became a man without ceasing to be God, so that he could live and die for our sins, rise again the third day as the exclamation point that the atonement had been offered, ascended back in victory in the clouds, and will soon return to come for his bride. 

All of this is seedbed here in this covenant. this covenant also illustrates for us how all of that's gonna come into reality. The responsibility to fulfill these promises rests in God's faithfulness. As we work our way through it's not you nor I that would ever contribute to this covenant. It is God himself who will bring it into a reality. 

And then lastly, it establishes faith as the grounds of receiving salvation. Look at verse number seven in Genesis 15 if you're there, or verse number six, excuse me. The scripture says, "And he," that's Abram, "believed in the Lord, and he," that's the Lord, "counted it to him," that's Abram, "for righteousness." In other words, the currency by which God would accre- accredit righteousness to make this man right in his own sight was faith, and faith alone. 

He took God at his word, and by doing so, he was made righteous in God's sight And so with such a, significant and consequential event happening in this chapter, you might think that, well, everything is going great in his life. He must be living right, he must be doing right. Everything in his life must be good, and that's why God comes along and pours out this blessing on him. 

You think he had to be living exactly what he needed to be doing. He had to be checking off all the boxes. His heart needed to be in the right place. Yeah. Our religious concepts of things would tell us that because, we do these things, God will then do for us, and let me just tell you that that had nothing to do with how you find Abraham in this chapter. 

Yeah. This man is broken. This man is hurting. This man is full of fear. That's why as this chapter begins, if you look at verse number one, the text begins by saying, "After these things, the word of the Lord came unto Abram," that's Abraham, it just hasn't had his name changed yet. The word of the Lord comes to him in a vision saying two words, "Fear not." 

That's the first mention of fear not in the Bible. The very first one. Fear not. So if God tells him to fear not, it's pretty simple to understand that this man is fearing. He's full of fear. Now, what preceded this was a great victory. Abraham, gathers his servants, and they go off because his nephew Lot and the people of Sodom have been overcome by a foreign king. 

And they go, and Abraham leads his men, and they, rescue Lot. They rescue the king of s- of Sodom, and they gain all that they would've lost back. It's a monumental event that you find there. And then at the end of it, when the king of Sodom offers Abraham to make him rich and to bless him in all these great ways, Abram says, "I don't... 

No, I don't want any of your stuff 'cause I don't want you to be able to say that you made me. I want God to have been the one that made me. You don't get no credit for what God's doing in my life," is what he says to the king of Sodom. Mm. So you think, great victory, man. That's awesome. Yeah, but he's got a longing in his heart. 

Genesis chapter 12 is where God first called him out of the place that he lived, which is a place called Ur, and brought him from Ur to a place that he would show him. Here's the problem. It's been 10 years since God made that promise. 10 years. And guess what? There's no heir. There will not be an heir for another seven at least. 

Now, if you're like me, you do really well in waiting times, especially when you know the destination. You already know where you're going, you do great in that intermediary period where you're just waiting. You just do fantastic. No, we do terrible. We are terrible waiters. All of us. Because especially when we know where we're headed, it's like, "Get me there now. 

Get me there now." it's why we invented microwaves. Because we don't wanna wait on an oven. You know, we want it now. Give it to me now, and now, and now. But God made a promise to him that I've talked about, that he's gonna give him a land, he's gonna give him a descendant, and he's gonna make him a blessing. 

And to Abraham's eyes, none of that outwardly has materialized yet. None of that's really opened up, especially in two particular ways. Maybe he can see that he's been a blessing because he's delivered Lot and the king of Sodom and all those people. He can see, maybe I've been a blessing. Maybe that's what God meant there. 

But there's two particular ways that he has not seen any fulfillment. The first one has to do with an heir, a descendant, one that will be the fulfillment of this promise. That's not come. But then further, the land. Abraham still has no permanent place to call his own. That's what preceded it. And how is he holding up? 

The simple answer is that he is full of fear. Now, it's interesting, the man that we so often associate with faith is full of fear, right? We think, well, the kid's all right, Father Abraham, and many sons, you know, all that kind of stuff. We think of Abraham, we think of Abraham, we think of Abraham. We always think of he's the father of the faithful, all that. 

That's who he is, but when you actually start looking at him, he is a man who is marked by fear. He's marked by fear. - Fear maybe here is originated that after this victory, that the people he defeated are gonna regather and come back against him and be stronger and better, and he won't be able to take them this time when they come back. 

Fear that after 10 years, there's no land and there's no heir, and that maybe this is not how things are gonna play out. But I think you can make a pretty clear case that fear has dogged him each step of his journey since he left Ur of the Chaldees. It's been all over his life. you don't think it was fearful to leave everything you know behind and stretch out to a place? 

And when everybody says, "Hey, where are you going?" "I don't know. I'm just gonna go where the Lord tells me." Well, who's the Lord? Yeah, you gotta remember, like, that- that's where he's at. Full of fear leaving the home, he did it. He left, but full of fear. entering an unknown land that was already occupied. 

He was fearful in front of Pharaoh. So fearful that he convinced his wife to tell the king that, she was actually his sister so that she w- he wouldn't be killed so that the king could have her. That's, that's some, that's some fear. guys, don't do that. Leave that one alone. Oh, just die. It'll be better, trust me. 

Oh, man. Fitz, your first time here today. You jumped into a good one. fear for his own life, fears with Sarah, fears regarding the promises. But I want you to notice as we work our way through this, that God's answer to his fear is to not give him more information. We would think that Abraham knows what's coming, and because he knows what's coming, then now God can just give him some more information about how it's all gonna play out, and that's gonna resolve his fear. 

God does not counter fear with more information. God counters fear with a greater revelation of who He is. Mm. Who He is. That's why when you get to verse number one and it reads like this: "Abraham, I am your shield and I am your exceeding great reward." Before we get into anything else, God establishes his relationship to Abraham and what that means on his behalf. 

Two ways it's pointed out: I am your shield. I am your exceeding great reward. Now, don't pass up the first part of that when he says, "I am." That means the self-existent one, the one who needs no others to carry him on or provide for him in any way, the one who called to Moses out of the bush and says, "I am," the one that Jesus said sent him, the I Am, the one who is, was, and forever will be, the I Am, the one backing Abraham, the one speaking to Abraham, the one who's made these promises. 

He looks to Abraham and says, "Abraham, get your eyes off the present situation and look toward me. I am." He makes him two promises. I am your shield. Well, we know why you have a shield, right? For protection. That's why you get a shield, so you have protection. Abraham, I'm going to protect you. You really think anybody can get to you if the Lord's your protection? 

I'm reminded of what Jesus, said, about how he protects his own. In John chapter 10, he's, he's talking about his people, and he says, "My sheep hear my voice. I know them. They follow me. I give to them eternal life, and no one is able to take them out of my hand." And he said, "My Father, which is greater than all and gave them to me, is able also, and no one can take them out of my Father's hand." 

So when he says, "I am your shield," imagine you're that pen cap for just a second. Here's the shield. You're in Christ's hand, you're in the Father's hand, and you're sealed by the Holy Spirit. You really think anybody or anything is ever gonna get to you? That's why Jesus said, no one can pluck you out of his hand when you're with him. 

No one can come get you because they'd have to come through your shield, who is the Son, who is the Father, and is the Holy Spirit. "I am your shield, and I am," he says, "your exceeding great reward." Notice he doesn't use rewards plural there, he just says, "I am your reward." 

You know, our Americanism interferes with our Christianity so much and we just don't even see it because we think of rewards and we're starting to think of all these things that we can get from God. It's not all the things we can get from God, it's God himself. That- that's the reward. It's that one so great would love me enough to live my life with me. 

One so wonderful would let me be so hidden with him that you can't see me anymore, you can only see him. I am your reward. The one who is eternal wisdom, eternal strength Eternal knowledge. The one who's the source of all life and everything. I am your reward. Do you really think there's any way to exhaust his treasures? 

You really think you're gonna outstrip his resources? No. Before he says anything about this, addressing his fears, he just reminds him who he is. I'm your shield, and I'm your reward. From there, we get into two questions. We get into two questions that really frame the rest of this chapter. One of them is in verse number two, and the other is in verse number eight. 

Verse number two and verse number eight. Let me just show you these questions before we get much farther here. Verse two. Based off of what God says, Abram responds to the Lord with two questions. The first one in verse two says, "What will you give me, seeing I go childless?" First question. Abram, I am your shield, and I am your reward, and guess what Abram does first? 

He pours out what's on his heart You ever been reminded who the Lord is and what the Lord does for you, and it's almost like that's the stopgap that breaks open the channel, and then you can just pour it out to the Lord? These two questions identify what's really he's struggling with, where he's really having a problem. 

Now, some would look at this and say, "Well, this is a man who doesn't have enough faith." You're right. He doesn't have enough faith. But it's not about quantity right now. It's about quality. God's trying to make his faith better Better. Not more, better And the way God does it is to address what's the core at his heart. 

In other words, he said, "Lord, what are you gonna do? Because I'm still childless. I don't have- A child ... what you promised. It's not become a reality. You said you were gonna do this, Lord, and I believe you are able, but I do not see how." You ever been there? Where you know where the Lord's leading you, but you don't see how to get there? 

Yeah. Okay, look at the second question in verse number eight. "And he said, 'Lord God, whereby shall I know that I will inherit it?'" This question relates to the land as a possession. And he says, "God, how do I know that you're gonna do this?" He wants certainty. Now we might think, well, you know, that's really forward of him to ask God to give him greater assurance. 

No. No. That's not forward when it's coming from a heart that's broken and contrite before Him. That's just pleading with the Father who loves him To build up his faith And he says, "Well, how am I going to know that you're gonna do-- How can I be more sure that you're gonna do this?" Because it... Look, everything you know about Abraham, as far as all the ways that he was a man of faith, those are still in the future at this point. 

He's still learning to trust God here, just like you and I So the central battle of this entire chapter is faith versus fear. Abram wants to address his fears by asking God to reveal the plan. Can you identify with that? When you are full of fear, "Lord, show me what you're gonna do, and I won't have fear anymore because then I'll know exactly what you're gonna do, and then I won't be full of fear." 

Boy, this is relatable, right? Yeah. You know? Let's just get real practical. I have no idea how God's gonna work in the next year plus to make that property a reality for our church. I am, I can't, I don't know 

And there's been people not here, but others, like especially that don't come from a church background, they hear about this and they're stunned. Like, "Somebody donated that property to the church and that much money and all that?" They're like, "That's amazing." And I'm just over here thinking, "Fuck yeah." 

Yeah, but what's amazing is that God himself did it 

Abraham's questions are really just revealing he can't see how it's all gonna come together You can't see it? Look, let's broaden this out. We have all kind of promises that God's gonna take care of His own, that God's gonna love His own, that we eagerly await the day where Christ returns for us and we are forever with the Lord. 

But we don't know when that will be. We don't know the twists and turns in the road. My goodness, I sat with a man this week in a, in a, in a rehab, who 10 years ago in February had a massive stroke and his whole life changed. It's been almost 10 years since he had that stroke. Ni- life now looks nothing like what happened, what it used to look like. 

And all his dreams and everything changed in that moment. But I sat there and I listened to him say, after everything he's got going on and coming off a broken hip and surgery to fix it, I listened to the man lay in the bed and get the words out of his mouth, "I don't know why God has blessed me so much." 

See, it's easy to talk about, "Oh, yeah, we trust God." And look, we sing it, and we should. But there's a whole nother level to this thing of living in it, because we don't know how the journey will twist and turn. We cannot see it. We are limited in all those capacities. But we have a promise. We have a promise that God will fulfill 

He has promised that when this life is over, those that by faith in Christ have become his children, they're gonna be with him forever I can't see what tomorrow or five minutes from now looks like. I have ideas and plans, and if God wills, as we learn in James, then that'll be what we do. But if it's not, then that was God's will and we go that way But this whole chapter's driving us to understand this battle between faith and fear. 

Because he's asking God to make the destination more comfortable in getting there, the journey more comfortable by showing us the plan, but God counters by teaching him that his real need is a clearer vision of himself, so that God being the I Am soothes his fears, not information about what's right around the corner That is the definition of faith Now, there's a central battle in this. 

Central battle is this. We have to learn not just to trust that God is sovereign and that he will get us to the finish line, that he, the finish line becomes a reality, but we have to learn to trust when we can't see what's happening and what's coming our direction, that the sovereign God is also the providential God. 

We have to understand there's a distinction between sovereign and providence. God is sovereign, but he's also providential. Sovereign is his right to rule. You know what that means? He's God, he's perfect, he's good, he's true, and whatever he decides according to himself, that's what it is, friend. I stay in my department, things go really well with that. 

I get out of my department, things go really poorly with that. We all get to decide. Say, "Well, I don't think he should have that kind of place." You can have that thought all you want. Fight him. I don't en- I don't encourage you to it. But fight him. Go resist him and see what happens. Think you've got it figured out and you're smarter than the one who created you. 

Doesn't the Psalm say, "He that sits in the heavens would laugh"? Doesn't when we get into Romans 2, the man who thinks he's got the world figured out and marches to the beat of his own drum, God looks at that man and says, "Your soul will be required." I'm just telling you, there's a way to live right and a way to live wrong. 

The wrong way is to walk around thinking you are the boss. The right way is to fall in line, and not with me, with the King of kings and Lord of lords. You fall in line through his Son. See, that's everything counter to what's inside of me. I am my own person. I am autonomous. I make my own decisions. You have that readom- freedom. 

You can think that way if you'd like. But the scripture say you don't have that autonomy and you're not free. If you're apart from Christ, you are bound in sin. You are lost, and you are not in your own control. You are being driven by the lusts of your heart. You are being deceived by Satan himself. My friend, there's one good way to take it, to surrender to the one who is altogether lovely. 

That's not It's not something we like We have to deal first with God's sovereignty, that he has the right to rule. But we have to learn that providence highlights the working power he has to bring what his will is into reality. Sovereign and providence. He is sovereign, as we've studied in Ephesians 1, that what he willed according to his good pleasure becomes reality, right? 

And there's no overcoming that. But he's also providential that he can guide and shape the circumstances to bring about that end 

So how do we see that illustrated? Well, we see it illustrated in Joseph and his path to being in authority. Remember what happened with Joseph? As, he has the dream, he tells his family about the dream, and the dream is all of my family is gonna be bowing down to me one day. Yeah, that was tough to swallow. 

But guess what? Sovereignty revealed it to him. Say you're, you're the younger brother here in this situation, and your brother- your older brothers and your father are all gonna bow down to you? Yeah, right, buddy. Take a walk. And if you won't take a walk, we'll make you take a walk. Yeah. So they threw him in the pit. 

They told his father he's dead. And in doing so, Joseph goes on a path that looks nothing like it's headed toward authority and power. It looks like the vision that God gave is gone, and it can't happen. But in God pro- God's providence, he brought all of it just in its perfect time to the point where we got to the place where Joseph looks back at the end and says, "Everything you did to me, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good." 

It's God's providence. It's God's providence. Same thing happens as we look at Abraham and Isaac. When Abraham later in his life is called on to sacrifice Isaac, he obeys, but then God providentially provided the ram that just happened to be there at the right time. No, God's providence provided it. The greatest example of this intermingling between God's sovereignty and his providence is Christ in the cross. 

Amen. Because God the Father sovereignly appointed Christ as the atoning sacrifice, and you think how could that ever be a reality that we could ever get to the place where the Christ could die in that way, that he could be the atonement? And then comes the betrayal, the Roman soldiers, the crucifixion, the mock trials, all those things that weave through in God's providence, he brought it into a reality. 

So as we come to that distinction, God's sovereignty has made known to Abraham his will. The sovereign promise is a land, a seed, and a blessing. God's gonna do this in you and through you. God's gonna produce this. But what's Abraham struggling with? The in between. Mm-hmm. He can't see how God is gonna bring those things into reality. 

He's made it known, but Abram's fear illustrates his weak recognition of God's providence There's a distinction we need to add to our faith if we're gonna truly grow in trusting him. And it's not just that God is sovereign and over all, and yes he is. It's also that God is providential, and that every part of the circumstances he is working to bring his will into reality If you only have sovereign prov- if you only have sovereignty, you get a declared will where nothing else happens. 

But because God is providential, there's a whole journey that goes along. But look, I hate the journey. If I could invent it, I'd fail, I wouldn't be able to. But if I could invent a way to, like, just push a button and end up where I'm supposed to be, I'd do it in a heartbeat. Yeah. Like trips to go see mom, especially when the boys were young. 

Y'all that, y'all that have like... I almost said something that would got me in trouble with. Y'all, y'all that have like, let's just say multiple kids, you know what it's like to stick all them glorious creatures in a vehicle for multiple hours and hope and pray you just make it, right? You've been there. 

Like, "Oh, it wasn't that bad." Well, okay, that's the mom talking. The dads are over here like, "Oh," you know. That's why I got up at 3:00 in the morning and tried to drive that tip- trip, or we drove overnight because we're just trying to get to... I am so impatient, I just want the destination is what I'm trying to say. 

I want the destination. But if there's not the journey, the destination isn't sweet. No. It's not sweet. The journey is necessary. It's why God factors in time, because providence and time go hand in- 

Speaking of that, I'm running out of the Quik-E-Mart 

So God's sovereignty will tell us where and how the story ends, but God's providence explains how he made it a reality The issue that we have resting in God's providence is that providence is often the aspect of God's work that we cannot see while things are moving in the direction. You cannot see the different parts coming together, and therefore, you look at it and you think, "God, are you actually working here?" 

You can't see this and that connecting. Most of the time when you recognize God's providence is because we've come to the end of a season, and you look back and say, "Can you believe all those things that just came together like that?" Yeah. Can you, can you see how all that... But the problem is, in the journey, we can't look. 

We don't have the vantage point yet to see God folding all of it together to accomplish it. And when we can't see it, you know one of the first places we run to? Fear. Amen. Anxiety. Worry. Oh, God. Stress. God, are you really there? Are you able to care for this? 

That, if I just confess my faults to you, has been a battle I've been working through for weeks now All the way back to, when, we found out about, the news broke about the property being donated to the church. This has been months now. Some of you have seen this, some of you maybe newer, you don't quite know it yet. 

But like- Yeah ... since that moment, there have been thing after thing after thing after thing of our church family just- Yes ... hurting and going through burdens and being, like, really stretched and walking through heavy times and seasons And you look and say, "Oh, but look every-- this is so good. Look at what God did," and that's great. 

It's wonderful. But friend, the journey is what makes the destination sweeter. You know, it's through those, the trying of our faith, through those moments we are growing in our confidence in Him 

Whether it's been sicknesses or deaths or life struggles or... The burdens have been heavy. People have a lot of stuff going on. I wanna commend you as a church family. You're throwing your arms around people left and right. But I'd be honest-- I would not be honest if I didn't say, sometimes on Monday morning, it's just like, "Okay, Lord, what, where is it gonna come from this week?" 

Because it's just happening all around. You say, "Well, why would that be? Why can't we have good things and then the path be good, too?" Because then we're no good 

God brings us along to remember He is our shield and He is the reward. Remember how this starts? I am your shield. I am your reward. And as we walk through this, we have to be leaning on Him. We have to be leaning on Him. We have to be trusting Him. And with that said, trusting God's providence requires as much faith as trusting His sovereignty. 

For it is where we-- It is in His providence we encounter the trying of our faith When James writes in chapter one, verse three, to count it joyful when we endure the trying of our faith He means to take joy when you don't have all the answers and when the path is not clear, but you know you've put yourself in the Lord's hand, and you're being stretched, and you're dealing with the pressures, and you don't have the answers, and you're struggling to keep all the things together. 

Count it joy because God's providence is at work 

So the doctrine of sovereignty tells me that God has a plan. The doctrine of providence requires me to trust that plan while I cannot yet see it And this is where faith moves from being a theological concept to a personal, deeply personal, deeply personal, life-altering foundation you rest everything on This was where God goes from being the concept to the person you love and live your life following 

God's providence 

And I hate to break it to you, when we get through this chapter, as it'll take us, when we get through this chapter, what we're not gonna find is when he gets to the end of it, God gives him all the details for how everything's gonna come together. He doesn't do it But he does turn Abram's eyes from down here to up there. 

Yeah. And he leads him to the place where though he does not know the steps that are going to transpire, he does have renewed confidence in the one who will get him there. Let's pray. Father, we thank you today that you are so trustworthy And in that trustworthiness, today we rest. We rest knowing that you are able even when we cannot see it 

We are confident that you, our Father, our good Father, are able to bring about the end that you determined And when you open doors When you show us where we're headed, you are able to make sure everything is needed to bring that into a reality 

And today I pray that our trust in you would move from being theory 

And ideas? 

Personal reality 

As we place ourselves in the providential hands of our God