The God Guarantee: By Jack AlexanderSample

Godly Risk-Taking

Hebrews 11

You’re not mistaken—today’s Scripture passage is the same as for yesterday’s devotional. I hope you’ll read it a second time, because I have another truth about God’s guarantee of provision to draw from it.

Faithfully seeking God’s capacity means being willing to take risks and acknowledge our lack of control. But risk is a scary word. The Land of What Is wants certainty; the people who live there think taking risks is somehow not being a good steward of what God gives us. I disagree. I believe prayerful risk-taking pleases God. Hebrews 11:6 says God will reward “those who earnestly seek him.”

The key is to live in relationship with God and in tune with where he is leading us. Doing so will make us more willing to put everything, even the things that scare us, out on the table for him to use as he sees fit. Only in this way can we move into the Land of What Could Be.

Here’s a clarification, though. God will care and provide for us as we take faithful risks, but that isn’t the same as saying we will materially benefit, or even break even, from every physical or emotional investment he leads us to make. God’s guarantees come as we move forward, plant our seeds, and engage in service to others.

Learning to live with a view to God’s capacity means we are conscious of the seeds he has planted within us, others, and his creation that can totally reframe any situation. Living this way is not a trick to force God to make us wealthy or to bless us in the ways we think we should be blessed. God’s plans are much bigger than the most complicated scenario we can imagine; his concern for all of humanity is much deeper than anything we can fathom.

Something that really helped me with risk-taking is remembering that when I take risks and lose, God doesn’t lose. Choosing to live in faith regarding God’s capacity for provision means separating our thoughts about what’s right—what we’re called by God to do—from our instant personal gain and learning to see past the immediate outcome to the long-term purpose.

Ask God to show you what risks he wants you to take today. And for the courage to obey.