When a Patriarch Hears and Trusts the Word of God

This is part 2 of chapter 4 in the unfinished Book: The Ruling Household. Here is the first part of chapter 4, and here’s a link to the beginning of the book - The Intro.

The whole world changed when Abram trusted God. Many have wondered how many other fathers the voice of God may have spoken to before one had the faith to follow the voice of God. While we can’t know if other’s heard God and refused we can see what happened when one father heard and chose to trust God.

Many scholars have suggested that the English word “faith” is losing the nuance of trust that’s central to the Greek word “pistis”. The New Testament describes Abram as the father of those who trust God. In fact, it’s Abram’s trust that changed his identity from merely Abram (the exalted father) to Abraham (the father of many nations). As Paul pointed out:

“Abraham is the father of all who believe [trust]. That is what the Scriptures mean when God told him, “I have made you the father of many nations.”(Romans 4:16-17 NLT).

Abram is the father of one family but Abraham is the father of all who hear and trust the Word of God. He is my patriarch and if you trust in the promises of God he is your father as well.

Tool: Retelling Family Stories of Radical Trust

A multigenerational family is rooted in stories where a generation took risky steps of faith because they trusted God’s direction. And a modern multigenerational family is fueled by new stories of risks taken out of trust in God. It’s not just rooted in our past, but it’s our daily bread. As our Lord quoted from the Torah, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Matthew 4:4 ESV).

Does your family have stories of trust to tell?

There are two kinds of stories that our family is continually trying to catalog and retell.

One kind are founding stories. These are stories when our family trusted God’s Word and we found ourselves going in a new direction. These stories tell our family how we got here and why they can trust God’s voice today.

The other kind are fresh stories. These are the recent stories that everyone in our current family can remember and that we’ve experienced together. These stories help our family to know that God is still speaking to our family today. We are not living off the faith of past generations but every generation is commanded to keep taking risks to walk by faith.

It’s living by faith in Jesus and walking by faith every day that demonstrates we are descendants of Abraham.

There have been seasons of our family’s life when my wife April has said to me, “our stories are getting old.” This has been a helpful signal that our founding stories are being retold but we are not generating fresh stories. We’re playing it too safe and not living by faith the way we had in the past.

God never let Abraham simply rest on his victories of faith from the past. He was leading Abraham to take greater and greater steps of faith and that’s true for every one of his descendants.

Next week is Sukkot, and this is when our family gets around a fire, retells old stories of trust, and asks if we have any new stories of trust this year. We have certain themes for the different nights, including “God is our Guide,” “God is our Provider,” and “God is our Protector,” where we prompt our family members to recount the stories of God’s faithfulness to our family.

Does your family have founding and fresh stories of trust?

Do you have rhythms where those stories are passed down to the next generation?

As the Psalmist says,

I will teach you hidden lessons from our past—

3 stories we have heard and known,

stories our ancestors handed down to us.

4 We will not hide these truths from our children;

we will tell the next generation

about the glorious deeds of the Lord,

about his power and his mighty wonders…

so the next generation might know them—

even the children not yet born—

and they in turn will teach their own children.

7 So each generation should set its hope anew on God,

not forgetting his glorious miracles

and obeying his commands. (Psalm 73 NLT)

Lead your family to take radical steps of faith and retell all that God has done to be faithful to your family.

The only households fit to rule in the Kingdom of God are those who walk by faith.