Let’s say you accept a dinner invitation from Jesus and you find yourself dining with Noah, Abraham, David, and Jeremiah. Jesus wants you to hear each of these family members of the faith so that you can grow.  During the salad you are listening to Noah talk about what it was like to hear God tell him to build an ark when the earth was only watered by dew and that rain did not fall until he had finished building the ark and gathered the animals.  He talks about the ridicule and mocking of the people putting down his efforts for the oversized boat.  You realize his perseverance in faith was the key to his success before God.  His obedience affected the entire world, you included.  You wonder to yourself, “Am I persevering through what God called me to do?”

The entrée is served and Abraham begins talking about how God called him to leave his country, family, and familiar way of life and strike out to a land that God would show him when he got there.  Again the faith to face the unknown hits you.  God made him a blessing to be a blessing.  He shares how even after Sarah and He were incapable of having children, he still believed the promise God had made him about being the father of many nations.  You wonder to yourself, “Do I still believe in the promises God gave me?”

David commenting on how nice the meal was thanks Abraham and Noah for there contribution to the evening.  He reminisces about the times he ask the Lord for direction in times of battle and the Lord would tell him exactly what to do; and then how it inspired him to write a psalm to help others trust in the Lord.  Jesus winks at him.  You think to yourself, “Do I have a relationship with the Lord like that where he would tell me what to do in a life threatening situation?”

Jesus serves desert and Jeremiah talks about this time he was complaining to the Lord about wicked people prospering.  He recalls how the Lord said that “If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, Then how can you contend with horses? And if in the land of peace, In which you trusted, they wearied you, Then how will you do in the floodplain of the Jordan?”  He then explains that when God calls us He empowers us to do what we cannot do without his help.

Forgetting dessert you start chewing on what Jeremiah said.  You think, “Am I relying on God to do in and through me what He expects of me?”