How was Abraham able to locate the promised land?

He had no maps, compass, and not even the name of the place he sought, yet he was able to navigate from Ur to Canaan. How?

Years ago, I heard a quote from the legendary British writer and Anglican lay theologian, C.S. Lewis, and it hit me like a rock. He said and I quote:

“Relying on God has to begin all over again everyday as if nothing had yet been done.”

C.S. Lewis

You cannot imagine how thoroughly blessed I was by that quote, because it is truly the secret that most people are looking for. “Secret for what?” You might ask. I am going to walk you through it in a bit if you read on.

First, let me start by walking you through Abraham’s journey with God. God had called him out of his father’s land to a place unknown. Take a second to imagine that. You get a call from someone unseen and he asks you to leave your whole life behind and you do just that. Daring, right?

Now, it is bad enough that this person has called you to a place unknown, but it gets worse because he doesn’t provide you with a map to get to the place. If you decide to go regardless, it means you trust this person with your life. This is what Abraham did; he trusted God with his life.

What I want you to fixate on in this story is that Abraham did not have a map that would lead him to where God was taking him. He had no compass with which at least he could say, "So far, I keep going west; I should find the place." He had just one means of navigation, and that was a sustained personal connection with God.  

In some way, we are all like Abraham. Knowing that God has a plan for us and a destination, but not knowing the nitty-gritty of that plan. However, like Abraham, the only way to have successful navigation is to maintain a daily connection in order to receive what exactly to do each day so we can reach his desired destination for us. 

In case you have not caught on to what I am talking about, I am talking about PRAYER. Prayer is how you can maintain a personal and daily connection with God. It’s how you receive constant direction for every phase of your life. 

Now, there is no disputing the fact that this is probably something you have heard a preacher say before, but what I am here to let you know is that maintaining this daily connection is hard.

Following God is hard! It will make you wish you didn't have to do it. However the difficulty notwithstanding, you have to do it.

In fact, it is the secret to maintaining devotional fervour and consistency.

In case you think this is easy for me because I am a Pastor, well, I’ve got news for you: I go through the same thing! Every man of God you revere goes through this more often than you realize. The difference between you and them is that they know they have to pray regardless. 

The reason you have to do it is because it will not matter what you know; your real security is in the vibrancy of your connection with God. Now, to maintain that connection, you need to pray and you need to do it daily. You can call it keeping a devotional streak.

It is important that you keep a streak because, just like food, no matter how much you eat today, you need to eat the next day. The same way your body needs food to function properly, so does your spirit man need prayer.

In Abraham's life, we see a portrait of the profound words of the writer of Proverbs: "Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." (Proverbs 3:5-6).

One way to prove that you trust in God for every step you take is to pray and trust to hear him for the next step. The reason you don’t pray is because you think you have it all figured out. This was the transgression of Israel in the wilderness. They thought they had it all figured out by making a golden calf. This was because they were tired of waiting on Moses, who was God’s spokesman to them.

Listen, anything else you would rather do when you ought to wait on God in prayer is idolatry and they are all broken cisterns that hold no water.

Having emphasized that making a daily connection is hard in practice, here's a trick that will help you achieve this seemingly impossible task:

“Make it Simple”

It looks and sounds simple, right? But it is powerful. The reason distractions are powerful in your life is because it is easy. You have a social media addiction because it is at your fingertips. It is easy to grab your phone at every turn. You can do the same to ensure your daily connection. 

Create A System That Makes It Easy. There are systems that can make it easy for you to maintain a devotional streak:

➢ Set an alarm for prayer time.

➢ Keep friends who pray around you.

➢ Get prayer accountability partners and talk about specifics.

➢ Decide what to do to achieve seriousness.

In conclusion, you must learn to wait upon the Lord. Doing it will challenge your flesh, but you must do it regardless.

Like I always say, “If you only pray when you feel like praying, you don’t have a prayer life”

KEEP YOUR STREAKS!!!

To learn more about prayer, follow my Prayer Series in the on-going 100 Days of Discipline Challenge.

CLICK ON THIS LINK TO BEGIN

Also, don’t forget to do the following;

• Share this with someone, you might be saving a life.

• Tweet at least a lesson learnt with the hashtag; #100DOD