HomeWord - Nov. 29, 2007
The LORD 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. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you. So Abram went, as the LORD had told him...
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This devotional was written by Mike DeVries
Genesis 12:1-4
In the day of Abraham, the world was seen as revolving drama. Deeply entrenched in the ancient Near Eastern mind was this sense that life revolved around a pattern of life, death and rebirth. All of life was governed by an unalterable cycle. This happens, then this happens, then this. In the end, one found oneself back at the beginning of the cycle.
Cycle. Pattern. Predictability. This is the way things are. This is the way things will always be.
That is until God speaks and invites humanity to something “new,” something different.
This is the revolutionary nature of Abram’s call from God. On the surface, it appears to be a simple relocation, but in reality there is something much larger going on here. God is not merely asking Abram to change his address. Essentially, He is asking him to change the way he sees reality. In a world of cyclical predictability, God is inviting Abram to envision the “new” – a future that is vastly different than the cycle of the past. In going, Abram courageously steps outside of the spiral, trusting that the Creator God is active and that things can change – we are not bound to the cycle of the past.
We are not bound to the cycle of the past.
What if we believed that was true today? What if you and I are not bound to the cycle of the past? Those things that were done to us, said to us, said about us... those things that have defined us and scarred us. You and I are no longer enslaved to the cycle of the past. God is calling us to envision a new future, a future free to be something larger and grander than we ever imagined. The way things are – the way things have been – are not the way things can be. The future can be different.
So... as you examine your life today, are there places that seem hopeless? Are there places where you simply cannot envision the future being anything more than the mundane cycle of what is? Is there a place where you desperately need hope that things can change?
Just as God invited Abram on a journey, so He invites us.
The only question left is will we go? Will we step into a future of hope?
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GOING DEEPER:
Where in your life do you need hope for a future that is different than the present? Read Jeremiah 29:10-14. What hope does this passage offer?
FURTHER READING:
Genesis 12:1-9; Jeremiah 29:10-14
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