When God reveals something to us, which is potentially life changing, often our response can be one of two things, we embrace it with excitement, or we resist it out of fear of the unknown.
When God gave Abram the promise to bless him in such a way that even his name would have to be changed. From Abram meaning, ’exalted father’ to Abraham, meaning, ‘father of many nations’. But there was a huge condition attached and several major obstacles to it. Firstly, the condition was that Abram had to move his family, not just to another city, but lock, stock and barrel, to a new country. To a land that he not only had no knowledge of, but to where God said he would reveal in due course, once he had begun the journey in faith.
The obstacles, well they seemed even more incredible. There was Abram’s age to start with, he was 75 years old at this point and was married to Sarai who couldn’t bear children, so exactly how would or even could God do what he said?
The reality was that this was the start of Abram’s journey of total reliance upon the God who created the universe and who was placing before him a series of challenges, to see if and how he would respond.
As is the case with anything God asks of us, it always requires a first step of faith. He always wants to see if we will we lean into Him, even if we don’t understand the ultimate result, of even how to get there.
Abram was obedient and took that first step, literally, by moving his family north, from the familiarity and safety of Ur to a place called Haran and then later after his father died there, on to Canaan, his ultimate destination and inheritance.
The obstacles, well, there wasn’t much that Abram could do about his age, or his wife’s fertility, so he would have to let God sort that out. Much later in the story, however, we read of how we can suffer significantly if we interfere with what is God’s responsibility by taking matters into our own hands to trying to circumvent His purposes through impatience or lack of faith.
Ultimately, God will have His way and part of our journey of faith is to fully let go of our trying to be in control and hand it over to Him. Sometimes that’s easier said than done. In Abram’s case, the fulfilment of being a blessing to all nations, came twenty-five years later through his miracle son, Isaac. Even after Issac was born, God tested Abram once more, this time to the absolute limit, but it was through this ancestral line that Jesus would eventually be born.

2026 sees WorldShare enter its 83rd year of ministry. Following the internment and deportation of foreign missionaries in China in 1943, those who had left everything to serve Jesus in that country were called to start all over again, in another new land. This time, rather than being on the mission field themselves, enabling and equipping indigenous Christians to step up and move forward to continue to work of the gospel.
People like missionary Duncan McRoberts, just like Abram, had no roadmap of where this would end up, or even how to do it, but they were obedient to the call that had been placed upon them, to serve their Lord and Saviour. And that is how the journey of faith is always lived out and experienced. By taking the one step that is before you today and letting God take care of the rest of it.
83 years later, we see that through God’s faithfulness, the work of the China Nationals Evangelistic Crusade (CNEC) has developed into a global mission equipping agency. Now a network of linked organisations in Australia, Singapore, Canada, the US and of course here in the UK. Together, we are resourcing many tangible expressions of the Gospel, often in the most difficult of situations.

WorldShare is thrilled to be supporting a wide variety of missional organisations and churches, including the Evangelical Church in North Macedonia. This network of churches works tirelessly to share the Gospel with a nation that has only been open to such for the past 20 years or so.

Pastors across Macedonia are following where the Lord leads and in so doing are breaking down cultural barriers; to bring the freedom that only Jesus brings to many lives in local communities. Their national Bible College is training up the next generation of ministers. They are all recipients of the promise to Abram that was received nearly 4000 years ago that ‘all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.’