In algebra, x represents the unknown—the variable that, once you solve for it, makes everything else make sense. Abraham’s life looks that way too: unlikely candidate, impossible promise, uncertain path. But Genesis 15 reveals the x—the one variable that explains everything. It was faith in God. This chapter, which many scholars consider the most important in the entire Old Testament, reveals for the first time how a sinful human being can be made right with a holy God. Abraham shows us that faith isn’t passive; it drives out fear, it takes God at His word, and it holds on to His promises. There are three things Abraham did that activated the God factor in his life, and they’ll do the same in yours.

In 1875, poet William Ernest Henley lay in a hospital bed, one leg already amputated, and wrote these now-famous words: “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.” It sounds courageous, but Scripture tells a different story: “Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him” (Psalm 115:3, NIV). In Genesis 17, God appears to Abraham and introduces Himself by a name never used before in all of Scripture—El-Shaddai, God Almighty—because Abraham still hasn’t grasped who is truly in charge. What Abraham discovers in this encounter is the one truth that can anchor any life: When everything seems out of control, everything is under God’s control. To live in that reality, there are three things you need to do: Walk before the Lord, wait on the Lord, and watch for the Lord.

There are three words that are absolutely true, and if you’ve lived long enough, you’ve already said both “amen” and “oh, me” to all of them. Those three words? Life is tough. No matter how many holes you plug in the dam of life, another one pops open. Maybe it’s when the rug is pulled out from under you, a dream dies, or you feel like you’ve hit a dead end with nowhere left to go. I remember a Peanuts comic strip where Lucy was philosophizing again, as she always did, to poor Charlie Brown. “On the cruise ship of life,” she declared, “some people face their deck chairs forward to see where they’re going, while others face them backward to see where they’ve been.” She turned to Charlie and asked which way his chairs were facing. He frowned and said, “I can’t even get mine unfolded.” That was exactly where two disciples found themselves as they traveled the road to Emmaus—hopes buried beneath a stone, dreams dead. And they had nowhere to turn. It was there, on the worst road of their lives, that they met the risen Lord.