by Laura Story
God’s plan for your life is about the journey, the process, the relationship of faith that is built with every shaky step.
Where is God calling us and what do we need to let go of to follow him well?
Bible Study and Video Discussion
Take a few minutes with your group members to discuss what you just watched and explore these concepts in Scripture.
1. Think about a time you experienced a significant detour away from how you had planned your future. As you look back, how was God directing your path through this detour?
The question isn’t whether our lives will turn out like the glorious plans we’ve made. The question is how will we respond when they don’t.
2. In the video, Laura talks about how some dreams in life can become broken and painful longings—such as the woman who desires to be married but can’t seem to meet the right man, or the couple who longs for a child but faces infertility, or the woman who loves life but faces health challenges that limit her abilities and threaten her future. Think about a time you faced a significant and painful detour that brought about a longing in your life. How did you respond, both good and bad, when you faced this situation?
3. How can the way we respond to painful detours strengthen our faith? How can it damage our relationship with Jesus?
4. Read Genesis 11:27–12:9 and Genesis 15:1–6. What do you learn about Abraham and Sarah and the detours and challenges they faced as you read these passages?
5. What do you learn about God and his ways as you read the story of Abraham and Sarah? How do you see the character of God at work in your life in similar ways to what this ancient couple experienced?
Is it possible that the very God who loved us enough to give his only Son for us has a greater plan for our lives than even we could dream up?
6. Think about a person in your life who has followed Jesus closely, faced painful detours, and held on to Jesus through the loss, pain, and struggles. What have you learned from the example and journey of this person?
7. Think about a time when God called you to give something up, leave something behind, and move forward to follow his will for your life. How did you respond to his call? What have you learned through this experience?
We don’t just read the Scriptures for some tips on living or a spiritual pep talk. We submit ourselves to the Scriptures, asking God to use his Word to transform our lives.
8. In the video, Laura noted that God often shows us more about what we are leaving and giving up than he does about where we are going. How have you experienced this in your journey? Why do you think God does not feel compelled to spell out exactly where he is taking you and what lies ahead as you follow him?
9. Martin and Laura did not really discover why God led them to Atlanta and Perimeter Bible Church until after the fact. Think about a time when you looked back, after a considerable journey, and finally saw the wisdom of where God had taken you. What would you have missed out on if you had fought God and not followed his plan?
10. How do you respond to this statement: “God is as concerned about the journey, process, and our faith along the way as he is about the actual destination”?
11. Think about one area of your life in which you sense God might be calling you to let go of something and follow him more fully. What is getting in the way of you stepping out and following God passionately into this adventure?
Just as we see in Abraham’s life, our “going” usually is preceded by some level of “letting go.”
12. How can your group members pray for you, encourage you, and support you as you seek God for the power to let go of what you must release so you can fully follow his plan for your future in this specific area of your life?
It’s in the letting go of this world that we find God’s best plans for us—when we place our trust in the One who vows to never let go of us.
Closing Prayer
Use the prompts below to guide your group in a time of prayer together:
• Thank God for the detours you have faced that have led you closer to him.
• Pray for strength and humility as you follow God through the situations that still don’t make sense or show any signs of resolution.
• Invite God to surprise you with new life direction that is in line with his will, even if it does not line up with your plans.
• Lift up group members who are going through a hard season. Pray for God’s presence, for his power to help them follow well, and for his will to be revealed in their lives.
• Thank God for people in your life who have been, or who continue to be, amazing examples of following God through the storms and struggles of life.
Between-Sessions
PERSONAL STUDY
Reflect on the content covered in this second session by exploring the following material from the Bible and from When God Doesn’t Fix It.
Day One: Fuzzy Details
In the video this week, Laura noted that when she and Martin made plans to move to Atlanta, they thought it would be for just a few years. Laura imagined Martin would complete his degree in design, she would serve as the worship leader at Perimeter Church, and then they would move to South Carolina to be near their parents. This was their plan for a perfect life. However, God’s plans for them would prove to be very different. Along the way, they would go through some hard seasons that would test them and make them wonder where God was leading.
This week, you read a bit about a couple in the Bible who had also made plans. God selected a man named Abraham to lead a nation of his chosen people. But to be that leader, Abraham had to leave his life as he knew it. “The Lord had said to Abram, ‘Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you’ ” (Genesis 12:1).
It’s interesting that God said go but didn’t tell Abraham where to go. Even more interesting, God made it clear what Abraham was to depart from—his country, his people, and his family. When he did this, God made Abraham a promise: “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:2–3).
There’s a problem, though. In the next verse, we find out that Abraham was seventy-five years old. That’s a little old to be a father of an infant, let alone of a multitude. But Abraham does as he’s told and ends up in Canaan. Yet there’s another problem: Canaan is occupied. It was a bit like God promising you a dream house but when you roll up, you find the Taliban living in it. Oddly, God was specific about what Abraham was leaving behind and about the blessings he was going to give him, but God was sketchy on the details of the new country.
Why would God do that? Was he trying to hide something from Abraham? Or trick him? Or could it be that if Abraham had known what was in store for him, he wouldn’t have left his father’s house?
As Laura shared in the video this week, if God had told her that she and Martin were moving to Atlanta indefinitely, she would have kicked and screamed the whole way there. But God wanted them in Atlanta because that’s where they needed to be to handle what happened next. If God hadn’t kept the details from them, they might have missed out on the blessings that were theirs once they were obedient.
1. Read Genesis 12:1–9. What promises did God make to Abraham? What details did God provide about how those promises would be worked out?
2. In Romans 4:21, Paul writes that Abraham was “fully persuaded that God had power to do what he promised.” Why do you think Abraham had such faith in God?
3. What would have happened if Abraham had stayed put? What can you learn from his example of following God even when all the details were not clear?
Day Two: Real People
It is clear that God wanted to rewr
ite the story of Abraham and Sarah’s lives. He wanted to make the couple the head of a great nation. He also wanted to bless Abraham so that Abraham would be a blessing to others. After all, the blessings God gives aren’t for us to use to grow fat and lazy but to serve and bless others. If you know the end of the story, you know that ultimately Abraham’s lineage gave birth to Jesus, the promised Messiah. Abraham’s blessings resulted in the greatest blessing we could ever receive: restoration with God.
Fortunately for us, Abraham trusted in God’s promises even when it seemed the fulfillment of those promises was impossible. He trusted that somehow God would give him a son even though Sarah was barren and too old to have kids. However, this doesn’t mean he was always a shining example of trusting in God in every situation. In fact, right after God called Abraham and gave him these incredible promises, we discover that Abraham was a bit of a liar.
Shortly after Abraham pitched his tent in Bethel, another unexpected situation arose: a famine broke out in the land. Once again, Abraham and Sarah were forced to change their plans, this time traveling down to Egypt where there was food. Once there, Abraham was asked if Sarah was his wife. “No, she’s my sister,” Abraham responded. While it was technically true that they shared a father, Abraham was lying to protect himself.
Despite Abraham’s sin, God still promised to protect him and reward him for his faith. But Abraham was consumed by the fact he and Sarah didn’t have children. Abraham had great wealth, but without children, a servant would inherit his fortune. Despite God’s assurances that wouldn’t happen, Abraham and Sarah grew tired of waiting on God. Here’s a twenty-first century interpretation of what transpired:
One day, Sarah came to Abraham and reminded him that God had promised they would have a baby. It seems Sarah had come up with a great plan—she would have Abraham sleep with her young Egyptian maidservant, Hagar. I imagine Abraham pausing just long enough to make Sarah believe he had to really think about this idea before agreeing to take her up on the offer. Sarah’s strategy would pay off nine months later when Hagar gave birth to an illegitimate son named Ishmael.
This is not to make light of what they did, because it was more than their just going outside of God’s plan to have a baby. When they made that decision, they were also going outside of God’s plan to be a blessing to others. These stories make us wonder what is up with this couple. Abraham lied and deceived others on several occasions. Sarah was impatient and created a lot of agony for her family by trying to intervene in God’s plans. So why would God put up with them and continue to work in their lives?
In fact, that is just the point of these stories. Abraham and Sarah were real people with real sins, just like you and me. Sometimes they trusted God, and sometimes they took matters into their own hands. But the beauty of the story is that God was faithful to the couple even when they were unfaithful to him. God basically told Abraham there was not enough sin in the world for him to mess up his plan! Even his disobedience couldn’t thwart God’s agenda.
While God doesn’t delight in our disobedience, he does delight in using broken, faithless people to showcase how faithful a God he is. That’s great news for you and me. Despite our sins, we can’t wreck God’s plan. When we make a bad move, he’s like a master chess player, resetting the board to show his goodness and grace.
1. Read Genesis 12:10–20. Why did Abraham come up with this scheme to say Sarah was his sister? In what ways does this reveal he wasn’t trusting in God?
2. Read Genesis 16:1–4. Why did Sarah come up with this scheme? In what ways does this reveal that she wasn’t trusting in God’s promises?
3. How do these stories illustrate that Abraham and Sarah were real people with real failings, struggles, and doubts? How did God use them in spite of their failures?
Day Three: Another Curveball
Abraham and Sarah eventually did have the child that God had promised them. Isaac was the love of their lives, and they wanted to celebrate their new son without the shameful reminders of their past. So, ultimately, they expelled Hagar, the maidservant, and Ishmael from the region.
By this time the family had settled down in Beersheba. They had their fortune and, now, their long-awaited child. The dreams of their very lengthy lives had been fulfilled. Their world revolved around this little baby God promised. Abraham must have been feeling very comfortable in his covenant with God. His family was stable, and he had a new permanent address. Abraham would never have expected what happened next. We pick up the story in Genesis 22:
Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you” (verses 1–2).
Why did Abraham say, “Here I am”? Had God somehow misplaced Abraham? Or was he just curious about Abraham’s geographical location? The text doesn’t tell us, but because of what happens next, I think we can assume that Abraham had learned that when God called, he answered. So Abraham was metaphorically raising his hand, saying, “I’m right here, God. Whatever it is you’re calling me to do, here I am to do it.”
He might have also added, “And thanks for this cute little boy you’ve given us. He’s just the sweetest thing ever, and I’m so in love with him!” If he didn’t say it, he was probably thinking it. But then God gets specific and asks Abraham to take his son—his only son (and by only son God means Abraham’s favored legitimate son)—and do something so troubling it is hard to believe a good God could even ask it. God wanted Abraham to sacrifice Isaac.
Just to be clear, that means God was asking him to kill or murder his own son as an offering to God. And if that wasn’t clear enough, the language God used here is reminiscent of the language God used when he asked Abraham to sacrifice his country, his people, and his father’s house. There was no mistake about this.
Abraham knew exactly what God was asking. This wasn’t an uncommon command in this culture. Many of the false gods that people worshiped demanded child sacrifices. But it was completely inconsistent with the character of this God. Abraham’s God. Our God.
How did Abraham respond? Remember, we’ve seen that he had trouble trusting God with things that really mattered to him in the past. He took things into his own hands with Hagar and twice lied about Sarah. How would he respond now?
1. Read Genesis 21:1–7. How old was Abraham when Isaac was born? What does this tell you about God’s timing when it comes to fulfilling his promises?
2. Read Genesis 21:22–23. What did Abimelek say about Abraham? What does this tell us about Abraham’s power and position in the region?
3. Read Genesis 22:1–2. How would God’s words have challenged Abraham’s faith? How would it have represented yet another deviation to Abraham for how his future was going to play out?
Day Four: A Lifetime of Learning
We quickly learn how Abraham responded to God’s call: “Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about” (Genesis 22:3). Abraham got up early. No sleeping in. No trying to talk God out of it. No dragging his feet. Abraham got up, loaded the station wagon with firewood, took his only son, put him in the front seat, and followed God’s navigation up the mountain.
What change had occurred in Abraham that he was suddenly so trusting of God? We get a clue in verse 5 after Abraham got to Mount Moriah and told his servants to wait while he and his boy marched on up the mountain. He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you” (emphasis added).
Ever since the days
of Adam and Eve, people sacrificed animals to worship God. Abraham had sacrificed other things for God—like the comforts of his birth family and the country where he grew up. But this was taking things to a whole new level. Yet Abraham didn’t hesitate. The next few verses tell us that he gave the load of wood to Isaac to carry up the hill while he carried the fire and the knife.
On the way up, Isaac noticed something was missing and pointed out that they had everything they needed except the animal sacrifice. Abraham responded, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son” (verse 8). They got to the top, and Abraham built the altar. When the wood was all stacked and ready to be lit on fire, Abraham bound Isaac and laid him on top of the woodpile. The only thing left to do was slaughter his only son and burn his body. Here is how the drama plays out:
But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
“Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son (verses 11–13).
What we see in Abraham’s actions is that after a lifetime of learning who God is, he finally offered himself in obedience to his God. He stopped insisting that he would write his own life story. Abraham had learned that sometimes obedience requires sacrifice. And Abraham was willing to sacrifice the gift of his son, Isaac, because worshiping the Giver was greater than worshiping the gift he’d been given.
