There's a popular saying, a philosophy, a mantra, Trust the process. You find it in places of business and athletics. It can show up in performance coaching all the way to personal fitness. And it is this mantra that we trust the process. And it's a belief in a commitment to a plan, system or a journey, even when the results are not immediately visible or challenges arise. Knowing that consistent effort and learning will eventually lead to the desired outcome. It allows for agency and agility. It involves focusing on the present steps and lessons rather than the end goal. Building resilience and having faith in oneself and the system to overcome difficulties and achieve long term success. Trust the process.
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But one of the things that I believe is that trust the process is missing something. Just actually missing a couple things. Because trust the process begins with self reliance, my effort and my ability to work a plan. The other thing that trust the process is missing is there's no promise at the other end. And trust the process oftentimes becomes very frustrating. Very. It invokes a fear in us. It invokes a fatigue in us. And I believe that that's because we've kind of missed something.
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And we have this mantra in front of us. Trust the process. But there's a subtle change as we begin to look at the life of Abram. Abram didn't trust the process. Abram trust the promise, and he engaged in the process. Now, I'm not trying to just use preacher speak and switch words around there, but there's really a subtle but profound difference. Because in our life of faith, our life of God, when we look at the life of Abraham, we See a man who is on a journey of faith that begins with God's initiative and is established by God's promises. And from that place, he engages in this lifelong process filled with highs and lows, victories, defeats, successes and failures as the promise comes to fruition. So sometimes when we find ourselves in the midst of a process, we need to lift our eyes to the promise.
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I believe that if Abram was trusting the process, he would have looked for a new one by that time. His life coach would say, you know, I think we need to pivot here. I think we need to recalibrate this situation. I need. I think we need to commit to a new methodology, because it just keeps getting worse for you. But what we see is that Abram isn't trusting a process. He's trusting a promise.
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As I've read over this over and over again this week, there's some things that just really stand out. I love that the God of the universe that is outside of time and space enters into Abram's time and space and speaks to his present circumstances. Be afraid. And he also speaks to the future reality. I'm your shield, and I'm your reward. It's as if the Lord is saying to Abram, I know it's been a chapter since we last talked, but I haven't forgotten you. It's as if he's saying, don't worry about what has and has not happened yet. I'm with you. I got you. And I got this.
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Moving from trusting the process, and he's moving to this place to say, lord, it's tough sometimes to trust the promise. Can I get a witness on that? I am grateful to Abram, Abraham, who is the archetype of faith, that he was honest to God to say. I got questions about this process because it's difficult.
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In the midst of the difficulty and the fear and the frustration and the fatigue of a delayed promise, the Lord says to Abram, come here, let me show you something. And he takes him outside and he lifts Abram's head to the stars. And Abram looks at the stars. And the Lord says, I double dare you to count them, because you can't. And in that moment, Abram's eyes are lifted from his lack of an heir to the abundance of what God can do. And he gets to experience that. The stars in the sky. And this is to be a reminder to Abram every single night when he looks at the stars, to go. As if the stars, when they're twinkling, is a wink from God. To go, remember what I said. It's gonna happen.
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This question is profound. How can I know? Everything that he has been doing is based on faith and trust. And he says to the Lord, in a moment of honest surrender, how can I know? How can I know that this is really going to happen? It's been a long time. I believe for some of us in this place, that's the question. In our soul, we are trying our best to trust the promises. We have engaged in the process. But we get to this point where we say, lord, how can I know that it's gonna happen?
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Because in that culture, when kings or people were gonna have an agreement or a treaty, they would have a covenant or a sacrificial ceremony to declare their promises to one another. And they would take these animals, and this is a little goryographic, they would cut them in half, and they would take half of it on one side, and they would leave a path and put the other half. And they would line these up, and then the two different parties would be on opposite ends of each other, and they would walk through the sacrifice. And as they walked through, this was a symbol and a symbolic act binding them to one another. To say, may it be to me like these. If I break my promise with you.
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So what God is doing this When Abram says, how will I know What God is saying, let me show you. May I be like these if I break my promise to you? This is the most binding of agreements in that culture, was cosmic, was spiritual, was legal.
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But what is beautiful, God keeps going with the ceremony. It says a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. Then the Lord said to him, know for certain that for 400 years your descender descendants will be strangers in the country, not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated there. But I will punish the nation. They serve as slaves, and afterwards they will come out with great possessions. You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. The fourth generation of your descendants will come back here for the sins of the Amorites has not reached its full measure. Now God decides to give details. Go to a land. I'll show you. You're going to have heirs as far as the sand of the seashore and the stars. And now he's specific in giving these dates and times. He says, this is going to be yours and for your family. But there's going to be trouble ahead. But trust I'm going to be in the midst of it. And he brings assurance to Abram.
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God is still working. When Abraham's asleep, he's not doing anything to engage in the process other than be tired and rest. And the Lord keeps working.
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When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking fire pot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. On that day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said to your descendants, I will give this land from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates, the land to the Canaanites, the Kezites, the Catamanites, the Hizzites, the Perizzites, the Raphaelites, the Ameritites, the Canaanites, the Garishites, the Jebusites. In the ceremony, what would happen is the two parties were to walk together through, but Abram falls asleep. And then in the darkness, a fire pot with a flame goes through alone. This is the same symbol that God would lead the people of Israel through the promised to the promised land, through the desert. God alone goes through the sacrifice. And you know what he's saying in that? I'm gonna keep my end of the bargain. And if I don't, it's gonna cost me my blood. And I'm gonna keep your end of the bargain. And if I don't, it's gonna cost me my blood. He promises, I'm gonna fulfill both sides. That's how good I am.
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And so when he binds himself in this covenant of Abram to Abram, and Abram says, how should I know? God says, I'm gonna fulfill both of our roles because that's how good I am. And that's the type of promise keeper I am.
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And because of the failures of these individuals, men and women, all the way to today, God sends Jesus his own Son himself, to die on the cross to shed his blood to fulfill our side of the agreement. The cross of Christ is pointing back to the covenantal sacrifice and ceremony that God had with Abram. And it's united. And in that we see that in the midst of our fear and our fatigue and our frustration in the process, that we can trust the promises of God because he is a God that does what he says regardless of the cost.
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One of the things we see in Abram is that we return to the Word. We continuously return to the word. In Genesis 15:1, it says, the Word of the Lord came to Abram. In each of the chapters 12, 13, 14, and 15, we see that in the midst of all the difficulty in he returns to the Word of the Lord. And so that when we're in a place and we are. I'll repeat those again. When we're in a spot where we're fearful, we're fatigued, we're frustrated, we entrust the process and we trust the promise and engage the process, the first thing we do is we return to the Word, what did God promise? And we continuously go back to that to hold onto it.
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The next Thing we see a lesson is that engaging the process, one of the things that we need to do and are allowed to do is we need to get honest to God. We get honest with God. Abram did this, and it changed his perspective on so many things. Abram wasn't just meant to ignore and endure the hardships. He was able. As he grew in maturity in himself and his relationship with God, he was able to get honest with God to say, excuse me, thank you for those words, but I've got a few questions for clarification. We're allowed to do that. It's all through the scriptures. And many times it's helpful for us not to do it with accusations to God, but to questions to God. Being able to say, lord, what can you give me? Being able to say to the Lord, how can I know? Being able to say to the Lord, what do I need to do? But there's a conversation and engagement that happens with the living God when we get honest with him, when it's not just singing nice songs because we're terrified. If I don't praise you and say nice things about you, you're gonna be mad at me. But being able to say, part of my worship and devotion to you is being honest where I'm at, so that you can shape what I see.
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We're shaped by symbols. The psychologist Jack Kornfield said that symbols have substance. They provide an implicit communication. Even we are not fully paying attention. You know, we go into a lot of old churches, and you go into. They're very ornate with a lot of symbols. And there was a reason for that. It wasn't just like, hmm, how do we. We don't have a hobby. Lobby. So how do we decorate now? Better get some artists up in here. No, they were creating symbols. Because when we see a symbol, it creates an implicit communication. And so every time Abram saw the stars, it reminded him. Every time he felt the dust on his feet, it reminded him. God said every time that he would be in a hard spot, he would remember and be reminded of the covenant ceremony we need. These aren't idols that we worship, but these are symbols to remind us of God's promises. And there are so many through Scripture. The flowers. Jesus talks about the flowers, the birds, the night sky, the sands of the shore, the mountains. I look up to the mountains. Where does my help come from? We look at the sea, that his faithfulness is greater and deeper than the sea. And also we look to the cross and each one of these symbols remind us of the promises of God. And it has the implicit communication that goes past our understanding, and it can cause our faith to arise.
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One of the things I encourage you to do is to look back. What has been your active response to the things the Lord has called you to? Has there been an active response of obedience or has there been just. I'll tuck that away and I'll stack that in my journal.
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The last thing that we see as we trust the promise and engage the process is we rest assured there are times, and this is why I Find some holes in the trust the process philosophy because it is self reliant. But when we trust the promise, we have to be God reliant. And Abram shows us that God even moves when we're asleep. And there's a resting assured to say God's going to do all he says he's going to do. And I simply trust. He simply trusts. And he is more God reliant to say I trust that you're going to do your part and you're going to fill in the gaps when I fail on my part. And we rest assured to say, lord, may you bring it to fruition because I trust you're the God who does what you say you're going to do.
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So my final words to you is I bless you in the name of Jesus with peace and confidence that you can trust the promises of God and that you have what it takes to engage in the process.
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