We hope this week's devotional will encourage you in your spiritual walk.
You are welcome to share this and include it in your church newsletters if you wish; we just ask that you please give credit to NTC and the author. Thank you!
Genesis 12:1-4a (NRSVA)
The Call of Abram
12 Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 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 the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’[a]
4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.
Devotional Thought:
The account of Abram’s call to leave family and fatherland is considered by some as a crucial moment in the Mission of God. Genesis 1-11 deals in very broad strokes, but at this point, things slow down and focus in on God’s dealings with Abram. I hesitate to use the word individual, because while God called Abram personally, the call was not for him singularly. In his calling, God said Abram would be a blessing [to others]. What God initiated with this one person was to radiate out to all people.
So with us, as God meets us along life’s way and draws us into what God is doing in the world. What begins in us is not just for us but is meant to be shared with those around us. We are invited to be a participant in God’s blessing, to break the cycles of curses of the past, to leave behind old behaviour patterns and allegiances, and to journey to a new place of grace. To do this requires faith. But not faith in the sense of an intellectual framework of belief, but a deep-seated trust in God. A trust that overcomes the fear of the unknown, knowing only that God who calls will guide and provide.
It would be naïve to think that such a way of living is without obstacles. Even Abram, with the promise of God pinned to his heart, faced difficulties, detours, and difficult decisions. After responding to God’s call, several years passed before the next recorded conversation between God and Abram in Genesis 13. In that time span, Abram travelled over 1,000km with his entourage of servants and livestock. He faced famine and failure, passed right through the promised land and ended up in Egypt – where he was less than a blessing to the people! He experienced bitter disputes within his camp which eventually lead to a parting of ways with his nephew Lot. Over the next eight chapters of Genesis Abram continued to face many ups and downs and even had a name change to Abraham. It was a staggering twenty-five years after his initial call that he eventually saw Isaac, the son of the promise, born.
Despite all that Abraham went through, he continued to trust God – not simply for his own personal gain, but with a sense that God was working through him to be a blessing to others. So, when you feel like life is squeezing the hope out of you, remember that God is faithful and walks with you through those dark valleys. God does not abandon you on your detours and continues to call you to participate in his mission in this world - a mission to turn curses into blessings, to provide safe spaces for people to flourish, and to multiply the heritage of holiness.
Prayer:
Faithful God,
As you meet each one of us along life’s way and draw us into what you are doing in the world, may we be reminded that the God who calls us, is also the God who guides and provides for us. Help us slow down long enough to see what you are doing. Help us be brave enough to follow where you are leading. And helps us to share all that we discover along the way so that we may be a blessing to others.
Amen.
Richard Giesken
Associate lecturer (Biblical Studies and Missiology)