Built to Thrive

Introduction

Every lasting success story begins with an uncomfortable process of change. Change is always a key ingredient to faith. In fact, faith demands change! The twelfth chapter of Genesis presents a defining moment of destiny in Abraham’s life. So defining is the moment that it demands drastic changes. God asks Abraham not to just leave but also change. He asks him to leave his natural affections to embrace divine graces. He asks him to leave his realm, his relatives, his residence, and everything he recognizes as his father’s property.

The change is major, the risks so great, but so is the magnitude of the promised reward.

From known to unknown, God calls Abraham to obedience. He does not call him to a land that He will give him, rather to one He would show him. Initially, God tells Abraham neither what kind of land it is, nor where the land is. Abraham must follow God with an implicit faith. He must take God at His Word.

What follows for Abraham is a transformational journey; a journey of one who knew not God to a patriarch of faith; a journey that transforms his abilities for use in God’s purposes; a journey that transforms his appetites to those that follow hard after a God–given purpose.

Pressing on towards his God–given purpose totally changes Abraham.

The Journey to Thriving

Like Abraham we get to face similar lifetime experiences—opportunities that would define our destiny. These opportunities come to us in the ordinary course of our lives. From cradle to date, our experiences are laden with them. Recognized and embraced, these opportunities that draw us out of the ordinary to do the extraordinary, ultimately transform us. We harness them by the choices we make daily. Life gives us a fair share of opportunities to choose the purposeful path. Sadly, few of us recognise or even make the most of those opportune moments. Built to Thrive will sharpen that consciousness and equip you with tools to make choices aligned to your purpose. It will stretch you to grow. While God intends to have us pursue a mission of meaning, we must first step out of our comfort zones to embrace the blessing reserved for those who will take the risk. Those willing to thrive—to change and grow—will make the most of it. All this demands faith—the substance of the things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. It requires that we enlist in the daring adventure of risking the familiar for the unfamiliar. It demands that we place an uncertain vision of the future in the hands of the God of certainty.

The journey to thrive is a faith adventure. It is an adventure that requires we fully put our trust in the Almighty God, the one from whom all purpose flows. Embracing that purpose and entrusting our lives to God, we work in His strength to grow to our fullest potential and as a result help others to do the same. Only then can we claim to have been built to thrive. Our journey as believers is a version of Abraham’s story. Because we cannot please God without faith, and because all who come to Him must believe Him as the one who rewards all good deeds, we must risk and take the faith plunge in order to thrive. We embrace in faith the fact that He who started a good work in us is faithful to complete it.

It is with this in mind that we enter into a transformational process—a rewarding journey of faith in God and diligence in pursuing His purposes for us. Faith teaches us to understand that change is the rule of nature. It teaches us that change is the only constant thing in this world. Faith helps us acknowledge change as a difficult but essential process for significance. Faith gives us the tenacity to put up with the dissatisfaction that change demands for the treasures it brings.

To the sojourner of faith, change is a conscious dedication to the process of growth and progress—the willful act of daring to do something big for God. In Inside Out, Larry Crabb reminds us of the straight and narrow path of faith. He writes, “Between the time when God gives us life and the time He provides all the joys His life brings, He intends us to change into people who can more deeply enjoy Him now and represent Him well to others. The surgery required for making that change is always painful. But God will settle on nothing less than deep change in our character, radical transformation, and restructuring on how we approach life.”

Transformation is a central theme in the Christian faith. Writing to the Roman Church Apostle Paul requires them to embrace divine change. He writes: Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. 2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing, and perfect will.

Like Abraham, it is our mandate to live a life set apart for God’s purposes, a life He determined for us before laying the foundation of the world. Well lived, that kind of life is to say the least, transformational.