In the video below, Jordan Ferrone says:
“You are not supposed to feel confident. You are not supposed to feel ready. You are not supposed to have all the answers. Becoming someone you have never been before is stressful because you are stepping into unchartered territory, so the next time you feel fear and doubt creeping in, just know it's a part of the journey. This life doesn’t come easy - but I promise you - it’s worth it.”
I wish I could say that I go into every game, new season, or new situation with confidence, but I don’t. Honestly, I go into most games and big moments nervous. Anytime I join a new team or start a new game or season, I feel a sense of fear and anxiety.
Will my team like me?
Will I bring value?
Will I help us overachieve or will I cause us to underachieve?
Sports psychologist John Oliver once said, “Our brains crave reducing uncertainty. Uncertainty is the hardest emotion.” He also said we worry about the things we care most about, and success is less about positive thinking and more about taking positive action no matter how you feel.
Again, it’s okay to feel off or negative when something is new, when you are in a big moment, or facing uncertainty. Courage is learning how to do things afraid and take positive action no matter what is happening to you or around you.
Abraham is an example of someone taking positive action while feeling negative emotions like fear, nervousness, and anxiety.
Abraham, a descendant of Noah, was the Father of Many Nations and one of the most important people in the Bible.
Abraham’s name was originally Abram, and after The Flood, God told Abram that he was going to bless him so that he could be a blessing to others. But Abram went through a lot of tests before, during, and after receiving those blessings.
In Genesis 12:1, God told Abram, “Go forth from your land, your relatives, and from your father's house to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great so that you will be a blessing.”
Could you imagine the level of fear and anxiety Abram must have felt when God told him to leave the only home he knew? Abram had to live and act with faith and trust that God would take care of him and his family.
Abram left with his wife, Sarai, and his nephew, Lot. When they got to their new land, there was a famine, so they went to Egypt where the princes of Pharaoh took Sarai until God sent them great plagues and they realized Sarai was his wife and they gave her back. Then Abram and Lot had to separate their land because their people started fighting, and after they did, a group of kings conquered Lot’s land and took him captive. Abram had to get his best men together and defeat the kings who took Lot to get him back.
By then, Abram was an old man, and he and his wife were too old to have kids, but God kept His promise to Abram, and he and Sarai had a son named Isaac. God also changed Abram’s name Abraham. In one final test, God told Abraham to take Isaac to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains.
Abraham did what he was told, and right before he took a knife to slay his son, the Angel of the Lord stopped him. God told Abraham in Genesis 22:17, “I will bless you and multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies.”
Trials, tests, and storms are parts of the human experience. Even prophets who were blessed by God were tested. But Abraham kept his hope and faith in God. Hope is an expectation that something good is going to happen to you and through you, and hope allows you to live with joy, enthusiasm, and excitement.
Hope doesn’t mean that you won’t go through your own struggles, but it means that no matter what, all things will work together for good.
In Romans 4:18-22, it was written:
“Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’ Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had the power to do what he had promised. This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.”
My first takeaway from Abraham’s story was that God will call us to do things that make us uncomfortable, but we have to trust Him. Life isn’t always easy. Leaving your home and everything you know isn’t easy, but Abraham did it and at the end of the day, it all worked out for him and his family.
My second takeaway is that even though God might tell us to do something, the journey won’t always be easy. Every step of the way, we have to pray, ask for direction, listen, then do what He is telling us to do - even when it’s hard. When Abraham left his home, he had to save his wife and his nephew, and then he had to almost sacrifice his only son. But Moses had to do all these things without weakening his faith.
My third takeaway is we are taught sometimes to not pay attention to our circumstances and control what we can control, but it says Abraham faced the fact he was old and believed that God is greater.
Sometimes we need to look our circumstances, our feelings, our fears, and our anxieties in the face and say, “I don’t care what else is going on; I believe God is going to come through for me.”
SOMETHING(s) TO THINK ABOUT
1 - What would you have done if God told you to leave your home and everything you knew to start a new life in a land you don’t know and with people you don’t know?
2 - What should you be doing now to help you live the life you want to live, and what is standing in your way?
3 - What can you do today to start overcoming those barriers so you can become the person you want to become and live the life you want to live?
My prayer:
Dear, God. Thank you for leading me, guiding me, and always being there for me. Even though it doesn’t feel good, thank you for pushing me out of my comfort zone; I know it makes me better. Please continue to give me what I need, and please keep giving me the strength and focus to keep doing the right things, the right way. In Jesus’s name I pray, amen.
For a Google Doc version, click here: The Faith of Abraham
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