Genesis 12:1 Get out of your country: From your family and from your father's house, to a land that I will show you.
Everything began with a first step for Abraham and so it will for you. To get to the heart of what God is after is going to take courage, it is going to take separation, it is going to take desire.
I am sure Abraham was just like us. He was surrounded by influences of every kind. I am sure there were strong traditional beliefs both culturally and spiritually, strong family ties, financial considerations, and all manner of other things and considerations that bear down and weigh upon one's life.
But somewhere in Abraham's life there was birthed a desire, a receptiveness if you will to know God, to know His ways, to know who He really was. And God spoke into that desire and initiated a command. And the Command was get away from all of that, to separate yourself from it and come out of it to a land I will show you.
I have been praying for a similar thing for His people of late. I have been praying this desire would also be birthed in you. It all begins with that desire, that yearning, to know who He really is, what is He really after in our life, what we must do to go onward? God initiates such desires. And that is why I have been praying He would initiate one in you.
For Abraham, and for all of us, when God speaks into that desire, when He answers that prayer, it requires a first step. That first step will mean everything. For when we take that first step towards what God is really after, He begins to energize and strengthen us to do what He has given us to do, then we find His grace is sufficient for the next step and the one after and so on. We come from that day forward more and more under the divine influence of who He really is and what He is really after, what He is really aiming for.
The Land Abraham came into is symbolic of who God is and where He stands. For you it will be different for me, but the objective will be the same. We simply become part of the greater whole. But the only way we can truly do our our part, is to stand where He truly is. No other place will do. And to do that, we might find like Abraham, we are going to have to leave a lot of things behind. Things that are difficult, things we thought important, things we thought culturally and spiritually significant, things we thought were significant and true.
There must have been tears, and debate, and long good byes, and perhaps even second thoughts and struggles for Abraham. I am sure many spoke against it, many maybe felt hurt or even betrayed. But somehow Abraham fought through it all to get to God. That burning desire had been placed there by God which drew Him onward. He had to entrust whatever He was leaving behind and all the misunderstanding thereof and put it into the hands of God. And then somewhere in that deep long night, also I am sure filled with joy and anticipation, He packed His things and began the journey to the Land God had promised.
When I think of the debates and the strife and the conflict and the confusion of Who God is and what He is after that rage on and on within the walls outside of this forum, I am strengthened by the fact that God's still small voice can still break through. His ways can still be made known. He can still initiate that Abrahamic desire. He can still draw us onward and bring us into that land He is really after.
Prayer: Father I pray for your people today and even those that don't know you. I pray for your sake precious Lord, that you would have a people for yourself who yearn after you so much Lord that they become willing to take that step you give them to take, to act upon it, to take you at your word and leave all behind that must go. For I know when they make that transaction with you it moves your heart and you begin to act in their lives to give them the strength and the manna they need to go onward with you, to come into that which you always intended for them to be. For your sake precious Lord. For all that is important to you, may you have a people who truly desire you, desires to know your ways, desire to know that which you are really after, for in the end only that which was really of you will be able to stand. May you do it in this day Precious Lord. In your Son's name we do pray.
Everything began with a first step for Abraham and so it will for you. To get to the heart of what God is after is going to take courage, it is going to take separation, it is going to take desire.
I am sure Abraham was just like us. He was surrounded by influences of every kind. I am sure there were strong traditional beliefs both culturally and spiritually, strong family ties, financial considerations, and all manner of other things and considerations that bear down and weigh upon one's life.
But somewhere in Abraham's life there was birthed a desire, a receptiveness if you will to know God, to know His ways, to know who He really was. And God spoke into that desire and initiated a command. And the Command was get away from all of that, to separate yourself from it and come out of it to a land I will show you.
I have been praying for a similar thing for His people of late. I have been praying this desire would also be birthed in you. It all begins with that desire, that yearning, to know who He really is, what is He really after in our life, what we must do to go onward? God initiates such desires. And that is why I have been praying He would initiate one in you.
For Abraham, and for all of us, when God speaks into that desire, when He answers that prayer, it requires a first step. That first step will mean everything. For when we take that first step towards what God is really after, He begins to energize and strengthen us to do what He has given us to do, then we find His grace is sufficient for the next step and the one after and so on. We come from that day forward more and more under the divine influence of who He really is and what He is really after, what He is really aiming for.
The Land Abraham came into is symbolic of who God is and where He stands. For you it will be different for me, but the objective will be the same. We simply become part of the greater whole. But the only way we can truly do our our part, is to stand where He truly is. No other place will do. And to do that, we might find like Abraham, we are going to have to leave a lot of things behind. Things that are difficult, things we thought important, things we thought culturally and spiritually significant, things we thought were significant and true.
There must have been tears, and debate, and long good byes, and perhaps even second thoughts and struggles for Abraham. I am sure many spoke against it, many maybe felt hurt or even betrayed. But somehow Abraham fought through it all to get to God. That burning desire had been placed there by God which drew Him onward. He had to entrust whatever He was leaving behind and all the misunderstanding thereof and put it into the hands of God. And then somewhere in that deep long night, also I am sure filled with joy and anticipation, He packed His things and began the journey to the Land God had promised.
When I think of the debates and the strife and the conflict and the confusion of Who God is and what He is after that rage on and on within the walls outside of this forum, I am strengthened by the fact that God's still small voice can still break through. His ways can still be made known. He can still initiate that Abrahamic desire. He can still draw us onward and bring us into that land He is really after.
Prayer: Father I pray for your people today and even those that don't know you. I pray for your sake precious Lord, that you would have a people for yourself who yearn after you so much Lord that they become willing to take that step you give them to take, to act upon it, to take you at your word and leave all behind that must go. For I know when they make that transaction with you it moves your heart and you begin to act in their lives to give them the strength and the manna they need to go onward with you, to come into that which you always intended for them to be. For your sake precious Lord. For all that is important to you, may you have a people who truly desire you, desires to know your ways, desire to know that which you are really after, for in the end only that which was really of you will be able to stand. May you do it in this day Precious Lord. In your Son's name we do pray.