ODJ: where’s home?

July 31, 2015 

READ: Genesis 12:1-8 

So Abram departed as the LORD had instructed, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran (v.4).

For more than a decade now my family and I have lived in rental homes. This has made it possible for us to be ready to pack up and move whenever God revealed His next plans for us. Recently, however, we’ve been asked to leave our current home as the owner has new plans for it. It’s a beautiful house on a very large plot in the middle of a forest, so we’ve grown very fond of living there. But after 6 years we’re saying goodbye and don’t yet know where we’re headed.

Abram was a wealthy man, but when God called him he left all the security and comfort of his homeland and headed into the desert with his wife Sarai and their family (Genesis 12:1-4, 13:1). Initially he didn’t know where he was going; and he lived the rest of his days as a sojourner—rarely settling anywhere for long. He trusted in God’s promise that He would make Abram a great nation: “All the families on earth will be blessed through you” (12:3). Abram trusted in God and the words He spoke to him, even when things became difficult and ran contrary to what was expected of a wealthy, respected man.

Along his journey Abram made a number of mistakes. For example, he lied about Sarai on two occasions, saying she was merely his sister (she was his half-sister) and not his wife in order to protect himself. But did God give up on him? Never! God’s promises aren’t dependent on our getting it right all the time. He simply seeks our heart for Him and availability to Him—our willingness to allow Him to use us as He wills, trusting that He’s always for us.

—Russell Fralick

365-day-plan: Luke 10:1-24