Leaving It All Behind

The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.”

Genesis 12:1-2 (NIV)

Abraham, the first Hebrew patriarch, is introduced to us with the call God extends to his life. Scripture says that one day, the Eternal One called out to Abram. “Abram, get up and go. Leave your country, leave your relatives, leave your father’s home and travel to the land I will show you. Don’t worry, I will guide you there.”

Abram’s call included leaving behind everything he knew in order to honor God and to obey what God desired. Abram had to give up his place in his father’s household. He had to give up his political clout and forfeit his security. He was putting his survival, his identity, his prosperity, his future, his security all in the hands of God. Abram’s story, like most if not all others, suggests that God’s call on each of our lives will always mean some form of separation.

Whenever God calls us to whatever He calls us to, it is always going to necessitate giving something up, walking away from something certain, sacrificing the comfortable, risking our journey to the unknown into what is only known by God. There is always the need to be obedient, to lose every sense of perceived security, to intentionally only have obedience left and trust that God knows the way that we should go.

Sometimes, however, we want to negotiate with God to hold on to some of the things that make us feel secure.

• God, I’ll say yes to You, but can I preserve some of the investments that have served me?
• God, I’ll say yes to You, but can I keep the position and the title?
• God, I’ll say yes to You, but I’ve got some ideas and I have some certainties that have become cemented for me.

Our resistance is the reason it shocks us how obediently Abram responds to God’s call on his life. We don’t want to invest in our security, our success, or our happiness and then have to give it all up to answer God’s call.

God will stretch you in His call in your life to test you and see how much you are willing to trust Him. When it’s been proven that you obey and trust God in faith, no matter the insecurity or the departure from your plans, He may turn around and grace you with the very thing you were prepared to give up for Him. Why? Because Psalm 37 tells us that when you delight yourself in the Lord, He will give you the desires of your heart.