Neal A. Maxwell wrote: “Because the world is readily inclined to mock at divine promises, the promises inherent in the gospel can jar the ordinary intellect, bereft of faith.
Like Abraham, however, we know it is vital for us not to stagger at the soaring promises that God has made to us. The promises are so bold! But unwillingness to believe in those promises, ironically, keeps some from pursuing their spiritual journey with real intent.
Paul wrote of the faith of Abraham and Sarah and the promises about their posterity when such advanced years made them “as good as dead.” “But,” he continued, “having seen [the promises] afar off, [they] were persuaded of them, and embraced them.” (Hebrews 11:12-13 . . .)
The promise given Abraham about his impending posterity went against the obvious, but he did not stagger. If we ask ourselves what we are missing by being unable to see “afar off,” it includes soaring things that can stagger the imagination if we do not possess adequate faith.
When we are too zoomed in on our own little vineyards, we may, as Jesus chided, successfully forecast the weather but still not discern the signs of the times (Matthew 16:24). Or, as the Lord said in 1831 prior to Civil War days, Americans felt there would be “wars in far countries” but did not know the hearts of men in their own land.” We can perish, too, if tunnel vision is all we have. ~ Neal A. Maxwell, Whom the Lord Loveth (Salt Lake City, Deseret Book, 2003) 103-04
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