Introduction
Are you willing to follow Jesus when you don’t have all the information, when you can’t “check the news” of your own life and get clarity? The central lesson of Hebrews 11 is that God calls me to live beyond routine religion and comfortable predictability, trusting Him by faith in the midst of uncertainty because He knows the plan even when I do not. Hebrews 11 has a way of landing right where we live. We’re people who want to know: we check headlines, weather, stocks, scores, social updates, anything that helps us feel anchored. Yet that desire to know will often collide with a greater calling: to walk by faith, not by sight. That’s why Abraham and Sarah are such a gift to us. Their lives could be titled Faith in the Midst of Uncertainty, because again and again God led them through moments where they knew almost nothing, and that is exactly where faith can please God like nothing else can (Hebrews 11; compare Hebrews 11:6). So I want to disciple you through their story in Hebrews 11:8–13, with Genesis 12 as the backdrop, and help you find a “North Star” for your own mysterious seasons.
Main Points
Are you willing to follow Jesus when you don’t have all the information, when you can’t “check the news” of your own life and get clarity? The central lesson of Hebrews 11 is that God calls me to live beyond routine religion and comfortable predictability, trusting Him by faith in the midst of uncertainty because He knows the plan even when I do not.
Hebrews 11 has a way of landing right where we live. We’re people who want to know: we check headlines, weather, stocks, scores, social updates, anything that helps us feel anchored. Yet that desire to know will often collide with a greater calling: to walk by faith, not by sight. That’s why Abraham and Sarah are such a gift to us. Their lives could be titled Faith in the Midst of Uncertainty, because again and again God led them through moments where they knew almost nothing, and that is exactly where faith can please God like nothing else can (Hebrews 11; compare Hebrews 11:6).
So I want to disciple you through their story in Hebrews 11:8–13, with Genesis 12 as the backdrop, and help you find a “North Star” for your own mysterious seasons.
Trust God When You Don’t Know
Hebrews tells us, “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out… And he went out, not knowing where he was going” (Hebrews 11:8). That line is simple and devastating to the flesh: not knowing.
Genesis fills in the backstory. Abraham lived in Ur of the Chaldeans (modern-day Iraq), in a household shaped by idols and paganism. Then the Lord broke into his life with a call:
“Get out of your country… to a land that I will show you.” (Genesis 12:1)
Notice what God gives and what God withholds. He gives a clear command, go, and He gives promises: blessing, a great nation, a name made great for God’s purposes, and blessing to all families of the earth through him (Genesis 12:2–3). But God does not give a detailed itinerary.
This is where I need you to grow up spiritually: faith is not confidence in your ability to predict the future; faith is confidence in the God who already holds it. You may not know the plan, but you can trust the God who does. He is sovereign over every detail, down to the hairs on your head, and He has prepared good works beforehand for you to walk in.
And if you’re tempted to say, “But my life is stable right now,” Scripture corrects us. James says, “You do not know what will happen tomorrow… you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills’” (James 4:13–15). Whether you feel it or not, your life is vapor. Faith is always timely.
Recognize God’s Call In Hard Providence
We often imagine God’s call as only dramatic, triumphant, and immediately satisfying, missions, revival, big platforms, big results. But God’s call regularly includes mysteries and sorrows that don’t fit our preferred storyline.
In pastoral life, I see in a single week what many of us would rather not face: miscarriages, stage 4 cancer, bankruptcy, job loss, suicide, prodigals, marital unfaithfulness, families relocating for medical care. If we live by sight, we conclude, “Everything is unraveling.” But by faith, we remember: suffering does not mean God has lost the plot.
I want you to hear this gently but clearly: the call of God does not always align with “perfect blessing” in the short term, and it does not unfold according to the timeline you would choose. Yet God is still working, truly working, “all things together for good for those who… are called” (clearly implied from Romans 8:28).
So when the call of God includes praying for a prodigal without knowing when they’ll return, walking through a diagnosis, staying faithful when someone treated you with unfaithfulness, loving an enemy, or uprooting your family, don’t assume you missed God. Often, that is the place where faith becomes real.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding… and He shall direct your paths” (Proverbs 3:5–6). Not with the part of your heart that already understands, with all of it.
Practice Faith That Goes And Stays
Abraham’s faith wasn’t only the courage to leave. It was also the patience to remain.
Hebrews continues:
“By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents…” (Hebrews 11:9)
He arrives, after a journey with no map, and effectively God says, “I hope you brought your tent.” He lives like a sojourner. No stable foundations. No immediate fulfillment. And the text adds:
“For he waited for the city… whose builder and maker is God.” (Hebrews 11:10)
That means Abraham’s faith had two muscles: obedience to go, and endurance to stay. Sometimes it’s easier to live by faith during the “adventure” than after you arrive and realize the promise is still “not yet.”
This maps onto the Christian life. Coming to Christ, leaving “Ur,” leaving the world’s idols, is not the finish line. It can feel like it at first (especially around baptism and early zeal), but leaving the world is only a small part of the journey. Much of discipleship is learning to live as a foreigner in the “not yet.”
Not yet are we free from sin’s presence. Not yet are we beyond sickness and disease. Not yet is the church fully spotless. Not yet has perfect justice covered the earth. Faith demands patience because of what we do not know and what we do not yet have.
So I’m preparing you: you will have to wait on God for the rest of your life. The question becomes: where will you get strength for that long obedience?
Judge God Faithful, Not Yourself Strong
Now Hebrews brings Sarah into the spotlight:
“By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive… because she judged Him faithful who had promised.” (Hebrews 11:11)
This is astonishing. The promise required not only a journey to a land, but a child, descendants as numerous as stars and sand. Yet Abraham was old, Sarah was barren, and their story includes real failure and imperfect faith (Genesis shows this plainly). Sarah waited, then tried to “help” God through Hagar. Years passed. Then God renewed the promise when she was about 89, and at 90 she gave birth.
Why does Hebrews honor her faith? Not because she performed perfectly, but because she learned where faith must land: she judged God faithful.
This matters for you because many Christians quietly believe the decisive factor is the strength of their faith. But the decisive factor is the object of faith. As one pastor-theologian put it: it’s not the strength of your faith, but the object of your faith that saves. Weak faith in a strong Savior holds. Strong faith in a weak branch fails.
God’s pattern is to call people beyond their natural ability so that no one can boast. He chooses the weak and foolish so that “no flesh should glory in His presence” (1 Corinthians 1:26–29). He made a fatherless man into the father of nations. He brought the child of promise from a barren womb. He works so that our confidence rests in Him, not in ourselves.
So when you feel unable, you may be closer to the center of God’s calling than you realize. Your weakness is not a disqualification; it’s often the stage where God displays His strength.
Live And Die Still Trusting
Hebrews 11:12 sounds like the triumphant ending, descendants like stars and sand. But then Scripture refuses to sell us a fantasy:
“These all died in faith, not having received the promises…” (Hebrews 11:13)
Abraham saw Isaac, yes. But he did not see the full multitude. He lived in tents. The only land he truly owned was a burial plot. In other words, he did not receive the promises in their fullness on his earthly timeline.
This is where discipleship gets painfully honest. If you insist that God must fulfill everything now, you will eventually accuse Him of failing you. But if you understand that the timeline of God stretches into eternity, you will learn to endure.
“The just shall live by faith” (a theme running through Hebrews), and we could add: the just will also die in faith. There is no retirement age from trusting God. Unless Christ returns in our lifetime, every one of us will take our final breath still holding promises that are “yes and amen” yet still, in many ways, “far off.”
So when the world sells you “your best life now,” I want you to measure that carefully. Yes, God gives foretastes of heaven, real joy, real worship, real grace. But the Christian hope is not that all promises are cashed in during this age. Our deepest inheritance is the city with foundations, built by God.
Conclusion
I’m calling you to the same kind of faith we see in Abraham and Sarah:
- Faith that obeys when God calls, even without full details (Hebrews 11:8; Genesis 12:1–3).
- Faith that interprets hardship as part of God’s wise providence, not the absence of His love.
- Faith that not only goes but also stays, waiting patiently in the “not yet” (Hebrews 11:9–10).
- Faith that rests on God’s faithfulness, not our spiritual performance (Hebrews 11:11; 1 Corinthians 1:26–29).
- Faith that is willing to live, and die, still trusting, because the timeline reaches into eternity (Hebrews 11:13; James 4:13–15).
You may not know where you’re going. But you can know the One who does. And you can please Him, perhaps like never before, by trusting Him in the fog.
Father, I confess how much I crave certainty and control. Teach me to live by faith like Abraham and Sarah, to obey when You call, to wait when You say “not yet,” and to trust You when I cannot see the outcome. Strengthen me in weakness, quiet my anxious striving, and help me judge You faithful in every season. Direct my paths as I acknowledge You in all my ways, and anchor my hope in the city You are building, through Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen.
Conclusion
I’m calling you to the same kind of faith we see in Abraham and Sarah:
- Faith that obeys when God calls, even without full details (Hebrews 11:8; Genesis 12:1–3).
- Faith that interprets hardship as part of God’s wise providence, not the absence of His love.
- Faith that not only goes but also stays, waiting patiently in the “not yet” (Hebrews 11:9–10).
- Faith that rests on God’s faithfulness, not our spiritual performance (Hebrews 11:11; 1 Corinthians 1:26–29).
- Faith that is willing to live, and die, still trusting, because the timeline reaches into eternity (Hebrews 11:13; James 4:13–15).
You may not know where you’re going. But you can know the One who does. And you can please Him, perhaps like never before, by trusting Him in the fog.
Closing Prayer
Father, I confess how much I crave certainty and control. Teach me to live by faith like Abraham and Sarah, to obey when You call, to wait when You say “not yet,” and to trust You when I cannot see the outcome. Strengthen me in weakness, quiet my anxious striving, and help me judge You faithful in every season. Direct my paths as I acknowledge You in all my ways, and anchor my hope in the city You are building, through Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen.