Moving to another country is not easy. I can attest to that. Even when God says “go” it’s not always easy.
With an airport cart piled high with suitcases and boxes and a six-week old baby, my husband and I boarded a plane from Heathrow airport with one-way tickets to Boston, Massachusetts. We left behind everyone and everything we knew as my husband transferred with his job from England to New England. It was one of the hardest things I have ever done.
Perhaps you have not moved to another country, but you have moved to another town, city or unfamiliar area and left your friends and family, the place where you grew up and called “home.” And you know it comes with challenges.
Abram moved country too, leaving behind the familiar for the unfamiliar. And I have to wonder if he experienced the same mixed emotions we have felt—sadness, excitement, hesitancy, anticipation and more.
God hadn’t spoken to an individual since Noah. And in the meantime the nations were created from Noah’s sons and spread out over the earth. And then God spoke to Abram, an ordinary person, going about his daily life.
God said to Abram: “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you” (Genesis 12:1).
Abram did just that. However, he left with direction and purpose.
God gave Abram a huge amount of reassurance.
“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. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:2-3).
Those nations being formed would be blessed because Abram did as God told him. But we know it took a long time before the promise God gave Abram would be realized.
Life can change dramatically when we hear God speak and we do what he tells us.
Perhaps your “move” has been in obedience to God saying “go.” Yet, often we find ourselves living between what God has told us to do and seeing the reason for his instruction or anything extraordinary happening. As with Abram, we are to remember and we can be reassured that God is at work. Just as he said over and over again to Abram, “I will… I will… I will…” (see the verses above) God says the same to you.
Where is God asking you to go, or where has he told you to go? Is it a small thing or something that will change the way you live completely? Are you willing to step out whatever God is asking you to do and trust that he will do many good things through your willingness to go?
Let’s pray to do so.
PRAY
