NorthStar Church Blog

 After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”

Genesis 22:1 (ESV)

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WHEN GOD COMES KNOCKING

 

There are two types of people in the world: those who love to celebrate Halloween, and the rest of us! Maybe your family was the type that decorated the whole house and bought out all of Walmart’s candy aisle (full-size bars, of course). That was not my family! We had a strict rule that all the lights in the front of the house had to be off and you were not allowed to walk by the front windows on Halloween night. Now, in reality, we were normally coming back late from our church’s fall festival; but after we got home, we did not want to be bothered.

 

If that doesn’t resonate, picture this. You just got home from a long day at work, you’re excited to pull into your neighborhood and kick your feet up on the couch, and you see a 19-year-old kid walking up to the door two houses down from you with an iPad, looking to sell you the latest pest control, doorbell, or technology that Mrs. Johnson from down the street just installed as well.

 

I think we can all agree on this: when we want to be comfortable, the last thing we want is for somebody to knock on the door. In this passage today, God comes knocking again in Abraham’s life. So far, God has asked Abraham to leave his home, his family, and his plan for his life. It seems like every time God came knocking, he asked Abraham to leave something that he loved to seek after God through doing the impossible.

 

Personally, I think I would be a little leery to answer the door when God knocked. This was not the case for Abraham. Why? He had seen God’s faithfulness time and time again.

 

In this passage, God knocks on the door with another impossible situation. God tests Abraham with the very thing he loved most – the son that he had been promised!

 

I love the fact that the word “tested” is used here. Sometimes I think believers early in their walk with the Lord feel like their lives will become easier and filled with less complications because of trusting in Jesus. There are two types of tests we can receive from God: Tests that grow our faith and tests that reveal our faith. This test was the former. In our Abraham series we have seen God’s slow, step-by-step, building of Abraham’s faith. His faith was grown through hearing from God. His faith was grown through waiting on a child. His faith was grown through hardships and mistakes. His faith was grown through the joy of the promise of a son coming to be.

 

Abraham didn’t just arrive as a man of faith but was grown through 25+ years of leaning on God and trusting His words. See, God was never interested in taking Abraham somewhere, but instead making him into someone. Our passage today shows the results of who God had made him to be.

 

And we get to see the fruit of Abraham’s faith in the back half of this verse: “Here I am.” This is not just a friendly “hello” or “peek-a-boo” with the Lord, but a statement of surrender. He is essentially saying, “I’m here God. How can I serve and glorify you”?

 

So let me leave you with this question. If the Lord were to knock on your door today, what would your response be? Here I am, or nobody’s home? Will you allow God to do the slow, faith-building process that Abraham walked through in your own life?

 

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Sellers Hickman serves as College Pastor at NorthStar Church and loves cheering on his Ole Miss Rebels. He and his wife, Hannah, live in Dallas, Ga. with their one year old, Emery. He also serves as the chaplain for the KSU Men’s Basketball team.

 

 

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 

Jeremiah 29:11 (ESV)

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CONFESSIONS OF A PLANNER

 

I love a good plan, and the farther out into the future I can put plans down, the better. I kid you not, I have things on my calendar for NEXT July at this very moment.  I realize this is where people split into one of two camps. You’re either with me screaming, “Amen these are my people” or scratching your head wondering how on earth its possible to live in such a suffocating manner. 

 

Regardless of which camp you find yourself in, one thing is true: God is a planner and His plans are not only guaranteed to work out, they are always good! 
 
Mark Batterson, one of my favorite Christian authors said in his book The Circle Maker, that we should “plan like it depends on us but pray like it depends on God.” I found a lot of comfort in that line of thinking because it allows me to map things out as I feel and believe they should go, but it also forces me to plan with hands open, holding loosely to the things on my schedule. It’s not an easy thing to do, living life knowing all that prep work could be for not; but I don’t believe any of it is ever wasted! Even if it is just the experience we gain from the preparation, God grows us in the process. 
 

The older I have gotten the more I have realized that it is a huge relief, a weight lifted, that while God wants to use me to work out His Kingdom plans, in the end I’m really not needed. It’s a matter of “get to” versus “have to.” If God can speak creation into existence, hold the Earth and the planets in place, cause the rising and falling of the sun, and tell the ocean where to stop, am I really so arrogant to believe that he NEEDS me and my five-year plan laid out in a color-coded Excel spreadsheet to work out other Kingdom matters? I think not. 
 
Praise God that I get to be part of His plan. Praise God that I get to be a tool in His hands. Praise God that I get to see Him do the impossible and watch miracles unfold in real time. But most of all Praise God that it’s not up to me and my planning. Praise the one who knows us, sees us, values us, loves us and holds all the plans down to the smallest detail in his hands – plans that are so good, and infinitely better than anything we could imagine, and give us a future and a hope!  

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Minda Seagraves has been married to her best friend, Russell, for 17 years and is mom to Carson and Maddie. She is also a full-time missionary with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, serving as a chaplain to local female high school teams and supports 380 staff across four states in the U.S. and 20 countries in East Africa as the Regional Director of Talent Advancement with FCA. Minda and her family live in Acworth and have been attending NorthStar Church since 2020.

 

 

And I will lead the blind
    in a way that they do not know,
in paths that they have not known
    I will guide them.
I will turn the darkness before them into light,
    the rough places into level ground.
These are the things I do,
    and I do not forsake them.

Isaiah 42:16 (ESV)

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WHEN THINGS DON’T GO AS PLANNED

 

I had it all mapped out. First, I would knock out my core classes, then dive into the major requirements that were needed to apply for pharmacy school. By Junior Year, I would apply and be accepted to an in-state pharmacy school. In five years, one more in undergraduate and four of graduate, I would earn my PharmD and have a career that I loved that would provide a steady solid income for my one-day, would-be family.  Then classes started and I found out very quickly that things can look great on paper but go very differently in reality. It didn’t take long for me to realize I was in WAY over my head. I dropped all my classes and went back to the drawing board. It was a difficult time of disappointment watching the dreams and plans I had for my life dissolve, having no clue what to do next.  

 

At this point in my life I was not walking with the Lord. I was on my schedule, my way, chasing down my dreams. I had a salvation experience with Jesus several years earlier, but without any Christian community to disciple me I quickly fell away from the tiny understanding of faith that I had and turned to the world for advice. 
 
I was walking blind as a bat through the darkness, fumbling my way as best as I could toward what I thought was a good and noble plan.  And while there was absolutely nothing fundamentally wrong with what I had mapped out for my life there was one BIG problem- it was my plan and not God’s. It would take more than a decade for me to come around and finally be walking in the plan he created for my life.  
 
Through many ups and downs, attempts and failures I learned both what it meant to let Christ be my guide and how to hold my plans loosely.  
 
I realized that my plans seem good, but His plans are great! Good is the enemy of great!! How often do we miss out on God’s best because we are content in our good enough? 
 
Life rarely, if ever, goes as planned and weathering disappointments is part of the deal. Looking back, I am so thankful that the Lord didn’t forsake me, that he was willing to lead me in my blindness, turning the dark to light and the rough ground to the level places I stand on today! 

 

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Minda Seagraves has been married to her best friend, Russell, for 17 years and is mom to Carson and Maddie. She is also a full-time missionary with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, serving as a chaplain to local female high school teams and supports 380 staff across four states in the U.S. and 20 countries in East Africa as the Regional Director of Talent Advancement with FCA. Minda and her family live in Acworth and have been attending NorthStar Church since 2020.

 

 

Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised.

Hebrews 10:36 (NLT)

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ENDURANCE

 

Running used to be my jam! Nothing beats being able to lace up a pair of shoes and just GO for miles on end without any limitations. I found out early in my running days that the gift of a long run is just that, a gift. It’s something you have to wait for and cannot rush, because a lack of patience results in injury. That’s why it is no longer my jam –  after a while the injuries add up and your body no longer can weather the strain. 

 

I remember the first time I realized that the name of the game was distance, not speed. It was perfectly acceptable to run slow if the end goal was to run long. It’s not like I was planning to compete in and sort of event; I simply wanted to enjoy being outside and improve my cardiovascular fitness. Once I conquered the initial battle of no longer dredging through the first couple miles as though I had on ankle weights while traversing through quicksand, it didn’t take long for me to feel that rush of wanting to push just a little further. That’s exactly what I did. I took my planned three-mile run and turned it into an eight-mile run. Only after I got home and the endorphins wore off did I realize that something was not right with my foot. A trip to the orthopedic doctor and an x-ray quickly revealed that my lack of patience had resulted in a stress fracture in my foot. Not only could I not go as far as I wanted, but I was sidelined until I healed to then slowly start over from square one.   

 

We do the same exact thing in our faith journey! Instead of having the patience to wait on God to lay out the next step, we decide he’s not moving fast enough.  Sound familiar? Waiting takes endurance! We want to rush ahead and get to the good while skipping over all the hard. Just like we talked about on Sunday, we must be willing to wait until God answers- and there is no way to know how long that waiting period will be. Each time God asks us to wait on Him the ask comes at a slightly increased measure of difficulty. The thing or outcome on the other side has slightly higher stakes than the time before and feels a little more out of our reach. We get lost in the minutia of getting there and lose sight of the one who spoke the promise into our hearts in the first place. If only we would be willing to slow down and look back at all the ways He has been faithful to keep the promises of the past, then we would have the endurance to wait on Him to get us there instead of rushing ahead of him and winding up weary and wounded. 

 

I learned early on that as a distance runner I had to endure in and through conditioning. I had to slowly increase milage to avoid injury to all the bones, ligaments, and muscles that fire, enabling me to propel myself forward. In the same way God conditions us, He conditions our faith muscle slowly and over time the initial limitations and fatigue that happened at the one-mile marker are a distant memory, as we effortlessly glide through the finish line of the marathon. 

 

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Minda Seagraves has been married to her best friend, Russell, for 17 years and is mom to Carson and Maddie. She is also a full-time missionary with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, serving as a chaplain to local female high school teams and supports 380 staff across four states in the U.S. and 20 countries in East Africa as the Regional Director of Talent Advancement with FCA. Minda and her family live in Acworth and have been attending NorthStar Church since 2020.

 

 

so that you will not be [spiritually] sluggish, but [will instead be] imitators of those who through faith [lean on God with absolute trust and confidence in Him and in His power] and by patient endurance [even when suffering] are [now] inheriting the promises. 

Hebrews 6:12 (AMP)

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WHILE I AM WAITING

 

As I was contemplating this devo, two words came into the focus of my mind’s eye: “faith fatigue.” I ran a quick Google search and sure enough, I’m not the first one to ever put these words together. In fact, my search yielded this definition from 3armedmonster.net: “faith fatigue is characterized by discouragement, disconnection, and weariness in the midst of your Christian journey. You’re not burnt out on Christ. You’re exhausted from the never-ending journey of having faith in God’s plans for your life and the world around you.” For me, that definition simultaneously nails it and makes me feel like a wimp. We don’t want to admit that the faith waiting asks of us takes a toll. But if we’re willing to get real and be vulnerable with ourselves and each other about our true feelings related to waiting, we can experience growth in those seasons of in-between that easily exceeds that which happens in the regular day-to-day. 

 

We can be certain God is good all the time, but as Mike Linch often says, it has to “travel that 18 inches from our head to our heart.” Knowing God keeps his promises and believing that he will do the same again for us in the specific situation and circumstances we are in are two completely different things. So, how do we keep on keeping on in the faith journey when we are bone tired with fatigue? 

 

Today’s reminder from Paul to the Hebrews is a great place to start!  When we are feeling spiritually sluggish, we can look to those faithful giants in the past for reassurance that God can and WILL come through for us just like He did for them. Sometimes we need to lean on the faith of others who have gone before us, and ask trusted friends and family to believe for us because we lack the energy required to breathe one more syllable in prayer. Letting them stand in the gap not only strengthens you and your faith but theirs as well! As they get a front row seat to your circumstance, walking with you in the weary and worn out, they also get a front row seat to the miracle and seeing God do what he does best –  make the impossible possible! It doesn’t stop there, because before they know it they will be leaning on the faith journey they walked with you as they traverse their own season of waiting on God’s promises to unfold. And so it goes on and on, over and over, as we faithfully bear one another’s burdens (Gal 6:2).  

 

Paul also reminds us that patience leads to the promise. Bottom line friends, if He says he will do it you can take it to the bank! It will almost never happen how or when you wanted or planned, but you can be sure that it is in His exact perfect timing. We often forget how intricately creation works together. No one thing happens in a silo; it all reverberates off each other. If God operated like the genie we often wished he was, giving us exactly what we want when we want it like an Amazon Prime order, things would be a disaster! We grow in the waiting, and we often recognize that when it all pans out His timing is far better than ours. 

 

So how do we overcome faith fatigue? Simply put, we don’t go at it – whatever “it” is –  alone! 

 

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Minda Seagraves has been married to her best friend, Russell, for 17 years and is mom to Carson and Maddie. She is also a full-time missionary with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, serving as a chaplain to local female high school teams and supports 380 staff across four states in the U.S. and 20 countries in East Africa as the Regional Director of Talent Advancement with FCA. Minda and her family live in Acworth and have been attending NorthStar Church since 2020.

 

 

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths. 

Proverbs 3:5-6 (NLT)

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WAITING IS HARD

 

Waiting is hard. I know that does not come as a complete surprise, right? Never have you once thought to yourself “I sure hope I have something important and life changing that I get to wait on soon.” No matter how many times we have done it, how old we get, how good or bad we weathered the last season of waiting, it never gets easier. But why is that, and how can we grow our waiting muscle? 

 

Back in the “olden days,” the 1900’s, when it was time to try out for a sports team at the school you had to do one of two things after tryouts: 1. You waited for a congratulatory call from the coach welcoming you to the team, or 2. You waited until the appointed time to drive to the school and search feverishly for your name on the team roster that had been posted on the gym window. I have sat in the waiting room of both those scenarios when time passed excruciatingly slowly. Knowing that I had a good relationship and history with the coaches, as well as the desired skill set they were looking for, did little to nothing to settle the “what ifs” and doubt from swarming through my head in the hours and minutes that ticked waiting for the outcome. I knew in my head, without reason to doubt, that I had what it took to make the team, but until my name was on that piece of paper there was still a chance for something to get squirrely. 

 

Sarah had a lot more on the line than making the Canaan cheer team. She was waiting for the promised child with her husband, and she had been waiting for quite some time. Logically, she could look back and see how the Lord had taken care of them, and she could trace his track record of goodness; but, this was different, wasn’t it? After all, she was old, HE was old, and that ship of possibility had long since sailed. So, she may as well find a way to silence the desire of her heart and that nagging inability to just let it go and live in reality. I have been there, having that self-dialogue rationalizing that yes, God is good and keeps his promises, but I must have just misunderstood.  
 
Why do we do that? Why is it in the waiting that, instead of doubling down on the divine we have witnessed time and again, we become dismissive? 

 

In another season of waiting, I walked through something much harder than cheer tryouts. I, like Sarah, was longing to be a mother to a child I would carry. It was during that time that the Lord gave me my life verse- Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.  Every doctor appointment, every test, every scan I spoke those words and let them be the foundation for my feet. I forced my fears to conform to the faith that came not from my understanding but the Lord and the Lord alone.  I didn’t realize it at the time, but the Lord was growing my faith muscle and giving me the first of what would become many tools to cling to in seasons of waiting. 

 

So how do we get better at waiting? We get more of His promises buried in our hearts. We “meditate on it day and night” so that, when the hard happens and we are asked to wait, we lean not on the ‘what ifs,’ traveling down every rabbit trail or possibility, but sit securely in the unknown trusting that whatever the outcome is, our good good Father planned that outcome in advance for our good and His glory!   

 

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Minda Seagraves has been married to her best friend, Russell, for 17 years and is mom to Carson and Maddie. She is also a full-time missionary with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, serving as a chaplain to local female high school teams and supports 380 staff across four states in the U.S. and 20 countries in East Africa as the Regional Director of Talent Advancement with FCA. Minda and her family live in Acworth and have been attending NorthStar Church since 2020.

 

11 Abraham and Sarah were both very old by this time, and Sarah was long past the age of having children. 12 So she laughed silently to herself and said, “How could a worn-out woman like me enjoy such pleasure, especially when my master—my husband—is also so old?” 13 Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh? Why did she say, ‘Can an old woman like me have a baby?’ 14 Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.” 15 Sarah was afraid, so she denied it, saying, “I didn’t laugh.” But the Lord said, “No, you did laugh.”

Genesis 18:11-15 (NLT)

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IS ANYTHING TOO HARD FOR THE LORD?

 

The question is given in response to the laughter of Sarah. It is rhetorical – the answer is not recorded because the implicit answer is “no.” God, by His very nature, is capable of all possibility – including that which is inconceivable to the intellect. Thus, he renders possible the impossible. The physician Luke, in His Gospel, records Jesus saying likewise, “What is impossible with man is possible with God” (Lk.18:27).

 

In the 5^th century A.D. an African bishop named Deogratias wrote to Augustine asking how to respond to pagans who ridicule the miraculous accounts in Scripture. He says, “’What are we to believe concerning Jonah, who is said to have been three days in a whale’s belly? The thing is utterly improbable and incredible’…For I have found that this kind of question has been severely mocked with much laughter by the pagans.”

Augustine replies,

“To this I reply, that either all the miracles wrought by divine power may be treated as incredible, or there is no reason why the story of this miracle should not be believed. The resurrection of Christ Himself upon the third day would not be believed by us, if the Christian faith was afraid to encounter pagan ridicule (Letters 102.30-31).”

 

Augustine is in effect saying, “if God can do one miracle, He can do all miracles.” And conversely, if He can’t, then what confidence do we have in anything? But God is able to do all things and He has recorded them for us in Scripture 1) because they are part of the historical record and 2) as an encouragement to all believing posterity. Do not be dismayed by laughter, either outward or inward, but instead hold fast to the God of the impossible.

 

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Ryan Hoffer serves as NextGen Production Director at NorthStar. He holds an M.Div in Church History and enjoys playing the harp. He and his wife, Tiffany, live in Acworth and have three children.

When he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them. And he stood by them under the tree while they ate. They said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” And he said, “She is in the tent.”  The LORD said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him.

⁴ Then the Lord said to him, “No, your servant will not be your heir, for you will have a son of your own who will be your heir.” ⁵ Then the Lord took Abram outside and said to him, “Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That’s how many descendants you will have!”

Genesis 18:8-10 (ESV)

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WHEN GOD ASKS QUESTIONS

 

As Abraham’s three visitors sit down to eat, they (led by the pre-incarnate Christ) ask the patriarch where his wife is. The moment is important for at least two reasons. First, the Divine identity of the visitor is hinted at. He calls Abraham’s wife by her name (note also that he uses her new name, Sarah) which, being a stranger, he would otherwise not know. It would be uncustomary to inquire about the wife of his host if he had not been there for the purpose of discussing the promise concerning her. Second, he asks where Sarah is, knowing the answer already. He, being God, is not ignorant as to her whereabouts. God knows where Sarah is. In fact, we see that he even knows what she is thinking, for he addresses the thoughts that she had “within herself” from a distance (v.12). Then why does He ask? In asking, he makes occasion for her to draw near and to consider what she believes about Him.

 

The scene harkens back to the events after the fall in the Garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve hid from God after their disobedience, He asks them, “Where are you?” (Gen 3:9). The question is a sort of summons to appear before the Lord, which is in itself an act of grace. Pay attention when God asks you questions. The answers are not for Him – He learns nothing new in obtaining an answer. Rather, we are the beneficiaries of giving the account. The questions are put forth to give us an opportunity for self-examination. Has God been asking you questions and, if so, what does the response tell you about yourself?

 

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Ryan Hoffer serves as NextGen Production Director at NorthStar. He holds an M.Div in Church History and enjoys playing the harp. He and his wife, Tiffany, live in Acworth and have three children.

Some time later, the Lord spoke to Abram in a vision and said to him, “Do not be afraid, Abram, for I will protect you, and your reward will be great.”

² But Abram replied, “O Sovereign Lord, what good are all your blessings when I don’t even have a son? Since you’ve given me no children, Eliezer of Damascus, a servant in my household, will inherit all my wealth. ³ You have given me no descendants of my own, so one of my servants will be my heir.”

⁴ Then the Lord said to him, “No, your servant will not be your heir, for you will have a son of your own who will be your heir.” ⁵ Then the Lord took Abram outside and said to him, “Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That’s how many descendants you will have!”

Genesis 15:1-5 (NLT)

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AS HE HAD SAID AND AS HE HAD PROMISED

 

There are places in the Holy Writ where truth is spoken with such blatant honesty as to unravel the theological complexities we’ve constructed to explain the behavior of God. For example, when Daniel’s companions tell Nebuchadnezzar that God can rescue them from the furnace, they add, “But even if he doesn’t…we will never serve your gods” (Dan 3:18; NLT). In making this assertion, they affirm the sovereignty of God in a way that is breathtakingly uncomplicated. That is, even if it is not His will to save them, He is still good and trustworthy.

 

Another such moment occurs after Joseph reveals his identity to his brothers. He exclaims, “you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.” So much is resolved in that short statement that a great many have subsequently endured evil only to discover it repurposed by God.

 

A statement of equal profundity occurs at the birth of Isaac in Genesis 21: “The LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did to Sarah as he had promised” (Gen 21:1). Here is, again, a moment of stark clarity about the truthfulness of God – He does what he says He will do and keeps His promises. The text is constructed in such a way as to deliver that truth as simply as possible. One commentator puts it like this, “The language of [Moses] seems designedly chosen to magnify the power of God…”

 

Be encouraged today that God does what He says He will do – simply put.

 

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Ryan Hoffer serves as NextGen Production Director at NorthStar. He holds an M.Div in Church History and enjoys playing the harp. He and his wife, Tiffany, live in Acworth and have three children.