Wednesday, October 7, 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
Abram
had to have great faith in God to step out from his comfortable life into the uncomfortable
unknown. We have learned many great lessons from his life and there are
important lessons we can learn from this specific time in his life as well.
Yesterday we looked at the lesson number one – Don’t be discouraged. The second
lesson we can learn is that God uses the known to lead us into the unknown.
God Uses the Known to Lead us into the
Unknown
God uses what we know and what is familiar
to us in His purpose for us. It might only be a small part of His purpose for
us, because He wants us to strengthen our faith by following Him into the unknown.
God used the known to lead Abram into the
unknown -
For Abram, God used familiar roads to lead
him out:
We have a picture of Abram setting out
immediately, wandering through the wilderness, waiting on God to give him
direction. But the route was well known.
From Haran, there were only two routes, one would take him back to Ur, the
other to Canaan. The route that Abram took, was the common trade route of the
day. In fact, you can still drive that
road today. This in no way diminishes the risk of leaving behind all that he
had known, and there were many dangers and unknowns along the way. But in a
similar way, God often uses known next steps in our lives to lead us into new
and unknown territory. – Keith Warren
Have you ever been in a similar situation?
Maybe you haven’t packed up all your belongings and left with no idea where you
would end up, but maybe you have felt led to join a Bible study where you don’t
know anyone. Or started a new job or moved to a new school. A new, unfamiliar
crowd can be a daunting experience. When people we love move out of our lives, or pass away, it can bring on some very lonely feelings too. It is a new
path for us as well, even though we are not the ones leaving.
The scariest part about new callings on our
lives is the unknown. Even if the known that God uses is a only a small step to
lead the way, we have the known fact that we can trust God in the unknown!
This one thing we know is the foundation for all the faith we need to propel us
forward in God’s calling on our lives. We may not be able to see down the road
to know how it will all work out, but we can trust that if He is calling us, He
has already worked every detail out. We can rest in this known, even if that is all we have to cling to. He loves
us and wants only our good. He will never lead us out to a dead end, a dry
waterhole, a barren land. He may lead us through a barren land, but He has
promised a land flowing with milk and honey just across the river.
If we can put our trust in Him and allow Him
to lead us into the unknown, we will experience so many blessings as we see His
plan for our lives unfold before our eyes. He will work out every detail and
provide what we need at just the right time. If He is calling you, take the
step and put your faith in Him.
