Risky Business

18/12/2018 12:31:21 PM | Dan McGrechan

I am reading The Lord of the Rings again. You might remember that Frodo comes into possession of a powerful ring. Frodo comes to realise that he must leave home and embark on a dangerous journey to destroy the ring and save Middle Earth. This is completely beyond his life experience to that point and unlike anything he had ever done before. Frodo’s courage inspires me. He risks everything to set out on a dangerous path with an unknown ending. He risks everything to play his part in the bigger story taking place around him.

This is how I want to live my life. I want to risk everything to join with Jesus as He builds his Kingdom on earth. But the truth is, I am rarely as courageous as Frodo. I prefer to be comfortable and do things in tried and tested ways. Taking risks feels, well, risky.

I believe that God’s pattern is to ask us, His people, to take risks because it leads us to trust Him. When we do not know what will happen, we pray and trust God with the outcome.

We see this pattern throughout the Bible narrative. “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.” Hebrews 11:8. Peter stepped out from the boat and walked on water with Jesus, until his faith failed him, and he began to sink (Matthew 14:22-33). Jesus followed God to death on the cross, praying, “not what I will, but what you will” (Mark 14:32-42).

What happens when we trust God with the outcome and take a risk? God delights to show us that He is “...able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us” Ephesians 3:20. Sometimes the outcome may not be what we hoped, but we have confidence “...that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” Romans 8:28.

When we take risks with Jesus on mission, we often see that He is already there working in the lives of others. We are never alone. He might be asking us to do things that are new to us and to break out of what we know… but we can trust in His guidance because He does know.
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