He Moves Mountains

When I read Hebrews, I realized something about chapter 11 that really resonated with me: The people mentioned in this chapter were leaps and bounds out of their comfort zones. That's how they made it onto this list; by leaving their comfort zones and venturing off into territory that was scary and unknown. Noah - he made the ark like God told him to, even when no one believed the flood would come. He was likely regarded as crazy and his whole family would have been treated badly. Abraham - he waited for years for his promised son, but God told him to take the boy and sacrifice him. Abraham didn't hesitate to do the Lord's will, even when it meant losing a loved one. Moses - denied his royal upraising to instead suffer with the people of God. He was raised by the Pharaoh's daughter and would likely have had power in that position, but he denied that family for a better one, even though it meant a hard life. Rahab - she hid the Israelite spies in her house even though it...

God promised Sarah that she would have a son, all she had to do was wait. Instead, she took matters into her own hands and had her husband, Abraham, sleep with her servant, Hagar. When Hagar conceived, she was at odds with Sarah and they felt like they were in competition with each other. Hagar had a son, Ishmael. Everyone thought that the boy was the result of God's promise, but then Sarah, at 90 years old, became pregnant. In the end, Hagar and Ishmael were sent away and Sarah's son, Isaac became Abraham's heir. (Genesis 16 - 21:21) If Sarah had been patient, she wouldn't have had to deal with Hagar's pride in her pregnancy and the slave and her son would not have been sent away. People got hurt because Sarah refused to wait. A better example of patience is the story of Jacob in Genesis 29:15-30. Jacob was working for his relative, Laban, and fell in love with his daughter, Rachel. Jacob worked for seven years to marry her, but all those years " seemed like o...