12 Now the Lord said[a] to Abram, “Go from your country[b] and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”[c]4 So Abram went,
https://biblehub.com/esv/genesis/12.htm
Abram was 75 when God told him to “Go”. God told him to leave his family, friends and home to head out to a place unknown. God told him that he would go to a place he would show him. God did not tell him how quickly he would get there, he didn’t even tell him where he was to go. In obedience and trust, Abram just went. It doesn’t seem as though Abram asked God a lot of questions such as “where are you taking me?” Or “what should I pack?” Or “what am I taking with me?”. Scripture doesn’t reference any questions asked by Abram, instead he just went. Why did he go? Apparently, Abram had spent enough time with God through his first 75 years that he had learned to hear his voice. He not only recognized it, but he also knew to obey it. Abram is referenced within the first 12 chapters of the Bible. He is brought into scripture right behind Noah. In fact he is a direct descendant of Noah, through Noah’s son Shem.
Abram went on his way to Canaan and landed at the Tree of Moreh. The Lord APPEARED to Abram and gave him the promise that as far as he could see he would give that land to him. That is a very big promise. The land was occupied and Abram did not have any family with him other than Sarai and Lot and they did not have any children yet, so I’m sure he had a hard time imagining that he would own all that he could see. From there he went to Bethel. I wonder why he left? Scripture does not reveal that God asked him to go. He went from Bethel to Negev. So even though he was brought to Canaan (the promised land), witnessed God, and received the promise of having that land, Abram chose to leave it.
When we choose to live our life under the direction of God and not ourselves we oftentimes find ourselves in unfamiliar circumstances where we aren’t sure what our next step should be. If we are young in our faith walk and still developing our ability to hear the Lord, then these circumstances are very difficult to navigate. Our first reaction is typically to go back to our human process which is to use reason, worldly experience and the input from other worldly friends. This a natural reaction because our inexperience with God has us in distrusting or maybe unaware of his ways. Worldly decision making is typically how we have been raised and taught. Critical thinking, gathering data, and considering risk are the popular approaches to worldly decision making. Our parents model these processes, the schools teach them, and the Church has not been very effective in teaching believers how to trust God. As a result, we grow up applying worldly processes to our decision making and as we experience the results over and over again, we become ingrained into trusting in our own ways. In Isaiah 55:8 it says, “For your thoughts are not my thoughts neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord”. Herein lies the problem in trusting our own ways. The world’s process works fine as long as we stay in the world. It’s when we make a choice to follow the Lord’s ways that the world’s ways becomes a problem. We try to apply reason, data and risk to problem solving, yet at the same time ask the Lord in prayer for His ways, and the result is typically confusion. Why is it confusing? Because we are using human reasoning and not trust. We have not developed trust in God, so we don’t know how to move forward with him. Developing trust in God requires letting go of our own ways. Letting go of our own ways when we can’t see or hear God is difficult, because our natural reflex is to go back to our own way. Why do we go back to our own way? Because of risk. Following God is risky because it’s an undeveloped strategy. Add risk into our decision making and most people will default to what they know and not to faith. Abram had the same issue. It seemed that he got confused about where he should be even though the Lord spoke very clearly to him that he was in the promised land. Why would Abram leave the promised land? Put yourself in his shoes. Through faith you have left everything you know, traveled far far away from there to a place that is unfamiliar, and filled with foreigners and foreign ways. Every day you’re with strange people in a strange land. You heard God give you clear direction to “go” and he has also given you a clear promise over this strange land and people, but God isn’t with you 100% of the time and every day you are put in circumstances that are uncomfortable. Though the Lord has told you it is your promised land, you still feel like a foreigner. Their ways are not your ways, is uncomfortable enough, but now add a famine to the mix. How would you respond if you left your home and your livelihood and now couldn’t feed your family? Would you stay or would you go somewhere else? As your family is becoming hungry looking at you to provide and you are praying in earnest but the Lord is not putting abundance on your table, what will your decision process be? Your resources are disappearing, what will you do? Will it be to trust in God and in His promises or will it be to go back to worldly reason and go find some food? Until you have surrendered to God in this manner you will never know the true answer, you will speculate. Until God puts you in a position of complete trust, you will never be able to experience it. Complete trust requires giving up all that you know for all that he is. It requires giving up your ways to his ways. Until you are able to do this you will have one foot in the world and the other foot in faith. Standing in confusion as to which way to go. Trying to choose faith, but too scared to really do it. Faith requires complete trust. Complete trust requires giving up all that you know. Maybe even giving up your family, friends, job, home and bank account. Are you willing to do this? If you haven’t done this, then I challenge you to question your faith level. Abram who became Abraham is one of the fathers of faith that Paul describes in the book of Hebrews. Faith is the answer. How well are you truly doing at it? Answering that question will lead you to the answer for your circumstances. There is no other way to truly follow Jesus but through faith. How well are you doing at faith? Answer that question. Answer it honestly. Better yet, ask God how he thinks you’re doing at it. If His answer is silence, then the response to silence is to get going. Get going in your quest for faith like Abram. If you don’t “go”, you will be left wandering and wondering. Wandering in your circumstances and wondering what to do next. To “go” means to walk forward in complete faith. To “go” means to be willing to give up all that you know for all that God is. To “go” means to sit at the foot of the cross and give all that you have to serve Jesus. To “go” will lead you to finding your new identity, your provision , your peace, and God’s promises for you. Hold the Lord’s hand and move forward in faith. Let him guide your way. It seems very risky, but the truth is that the world’s way leads to confusion and eventually death. God’s way leads to eternal life.
God’s way leads from “now what, Lord?” to “what’s next, Lord?”
Breathlife 