Listen

All of these people died in faith without receiving the promises, but they saw the promises from a distance and welcomed them. They confessed that they were strangers and immigrants on earth. People who say this kind of thing make it clear that they are looking for a homeland. If they had been thinking about the country that they had left, they would have had the opportunity to return to it. But at this point in time, they are longing for a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore, God isn’t ashamed to be called their God—he has prepared a city for them.

Hebrews 11:13-16

Think

In the heart of Bucharest, Romania sits a massive, unfinished building called the Palace of the Parliament. This structure was begun by the former Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu; it was to be 12 stories tall with 500 chandeliers, over 1,000 furnished rooms, and almost 4 million square feet of floor space. But the design was too ambitious, and Ceaușescu was overthrown before the building could be finished; now, many Romanians consider it an eyesore.

We often look down on incomplete projects. We laugh at those who don’t finish what they start. But many of the faithful people cited in Hebrews 11 lived lives that were incomplete. They died in faith, but without receiving what they were promised. But they were longing for something greater, so they continued in faith — trusting that God had indeed prepared something for them.

Your life may look scattered, unsuccessful, or incomplete. But if you are following God in faith, you are right where you need to be. A living faith trusts that God can take a seemingly unfinished life and weave it into a greater story.

Andrew Garnett

Pray

God, thank you for taking my life and making it part of your greater story. Amen.

Go

Go today with a faith that is alive to the presence and the possibilities of God.