Abraham
Have you ever wished you knew what the future was like? Have you ever longed for something that was coming in the future? Wondering sometimes if it was actually coming? Our next guy knows what it’s like to follow God and have no roadmap. As we continue down our list of great cheerleaders in the faith, we come to Abraham.
If you’ve been following along this whole series, I’m sure you can guess what we need to do first.
READ HEBREWS 11:8-10. WHAT DOES IT SAY ABOUT ABRAHAM IN THESE VERSES? CAN YOU PICK OUT THE PHRASE THAT SETS HIS FAITH APART?
Spoiler Alert! Abraham obeyed God (definitely seeing a pattern here…) and left his home even though he did not know where he was going. Hold your spot in Hebrews (we’ll be coming back to it a lot) and let’s read the full story in Genesis. But first, let’s get a little background.
READ GENESIS 11:27-32. WHAT WERE ABRAHAM’S AND HIS WIFE’S ORIGINAL NAMES?
WHERE WERE THEY FROM ORIGINALLY? WHERE DID THEY MOVE?
We’ll wade through all of this in the next post. It’s not just random facts – just wanted to lay the groundwork for some context. But, right now let’s take a sharp turn from Abraham’s background to God’s initial promise. Hold on tight and let’s dig into Genesis 12.
READ GENESIS 12:1-9. LIST ALL OF THE THINGS THESE VERSES MENTION ABOUT ABRAM.
We don’t know how long Abraham (Abram) and his family had been in Haran, but we do know that he had enough time living there to accumulate wealth. He had livestock, he had employees (herdsmen, servants, etc. – verse 5 says “he took the people he had taken into his household”). This was his home. His extended family was there and the Lord asked him to move.
Sometimes the Lord calls us out of where it’s comfortable and draws us into the uncomfortable. This isn’t to be mean or to “take something away from us,” it is so we will learn to trust Him. When you were little did you take swim lessons? Do you remember what it’s like to swim in the deep end as you are just learning to swim? Maybe there was a time you had to rely on floaties or a boogie board or a pool noodle just to stay above water. That’s what trusting the Lord is like when He calls you to the deep. He wants to be your floaties, your pool noodle. He wants you to cling to Him with all you’ve got and rely on Him to get where you are going – because He is taking you somewhere and doing something with your life.