Tuesday, October 6, 2020 Some material taken from Roll With It by Keith Warren
Now the Lord said to
Abram, Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your
father’s house, To the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great
nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a
blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I
will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed. So Abram
went forth as the Lord had spoken to him; and Lot went with him. Now Abram was
seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. Genesis 12:1-4
Lessons From Abram's Call - Don't Be Discouraged
Abram, or Abraham as you may know him, was
called by God to go. He didn’t know where, or how far, or how long this journey
would take. He just knew that he was supposed to take his family and leave
everything he knew and was familiar with and go. God called him out from his comfortable
life that he knew well, to a location to be disclosed at a later date.
This calling on Abram’s life was not a quick
assignment. It was a long process. Can you relate? Have you ever been in that
place where you believe you are on the path God has directed you to, but things
are not happening the way you imagined they would. When we are in the middle of
the desert road, knowing that God has called us out and promised us great
things that are no where in sight, it is very hard to not give up when we feel
discouraged.
From this process in Abram’s life we can learn
some important lessons. The first lesson is don't be discouraged.
Don’t be discouraged - We are a quick fix society. We can get
online, order almost anything, and have it this afternoon. We have conditioned
ourselves to not have to wait for anything. A swipe, a tap, a click, and we can
have anything, or watch anything instantly. The paths to God’s blessings are
rarely ever quick. It is on the path, in the process, that He works in us to
make us ready for what lies ahead. The greatest lessons in life are learned on
the way to where God is leading.
Discouragement can suffocate us if we let
it. When we are in a season of waiting or on the very slow path to the calling
God has for us, we have to be intentional to keep discouragement from setting
in. How can we be intentional about this?
·
Don’t
dwell on the negative –
Focus on the good things God has done. Focus on the promises He has already
fulfilled and the ones He has set before you. Don’t get into the practice of
complaining and the downward spiral of hopelessness. Imagine if Abram, or his
wife, would have done this? Out in the middle of nowhere, no one they know
close by, and they start looking at all that is not. They think about what they
left behind and how easy life was and they start feeling hopeless because it
seems there is no end in sight. We can’t let ourselves go backwards. We have to
keep focusing ahead – eyes on the prize.
·
Give
yourself grace – God had
told Abram to leave his father’s house, his relatives, and his country, and go.
But Abram actually left with his father, not leaving him behind. He went the
first 600 miles with his father to Haran and when his father died, Abram went
on to the promised land. Terah took Abram his son, and
Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son
Abram’s wife; and they went out together from Ur of the Chaldeans in order to
enter the land of Canaan; and they went as far as Haran, and settled there. The
days of Terah were two hundred and five years; and Terah died in Haran. Genesis
11:31-32 If you have not been immediately obedient to
God and you feel like He has given up on you, don’t be discouraged and give up
on yourself. God knows our weaknesses. He is patient and compassionate with us.
Stay positive and don’t give in to complaining and grumbling.
When we complain, we make the difficult situations even harder. If we can take each step
with grace, paying attention to what God has to teach us on the way, the
blessings will be so much sweeter. Don’t waste the journey with discouragement.
The things we learn in the struggle of the path are valuable, to our own lives
and to pass on to others that need encouraging along the way.
