“And he said, “Brethren and fathers, listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran, and said to him, ‘Get out of your country and from your relatives, and come to a land that I will show you.” Acts 7:2-3
My assignment yesterday was to write out a story outline, I chose to use Ruth’s story. As the profile took shape, I made a mistake in my account of the story. These were my words, “quick-thinking Naomi knew that she had to secure Ruth’s future and asked her to glean barley from Boaz’s field.” That’s not how it happened. The Bible says that Ruth left home to glean barley from any field in which she found favor from its owner. She left her land and family for an unknown God and unknown land, and God blessed her and led her in Bethlehem. I wrote about Ruth in The Choice –https://transformationplace.blog/2020/01/08/the-choice/
God spoke to Abram and told him to follow. To go to where? A land God would show him, an unknown place. Abram did not doubt or argue, he just packed his family and set off as instructed. Were there prior instructions about feeding, housing, and family upkeep? No. The book of Hebrews says that Abram dwelt in tents in the land God had promised him, for he waited for the city whose builder and maker is God. (Heb 11:9,10)
It wasn’t about the destination, it was about the journey. The daily trust in an unseen and unknown God led Abram through deaths, separations, childlessness, and fruitfulness, to an understanding of God. God did make him a great nation, and all the families of the earth are blessed because of Abram.
Humans love fairytale-like lives that have beginnings, the middle, and forever after endings, with all the details available. This is not so with God. God is not flesh and cannot be contained in a story written by humans. He is Spirit, all-knowing, all-powerful, and to know Him, is to walk into the unknown, to walk by faith. God said to Abram, “Follow me, and I will make you live out the destiny I laid out for you before you were born.” (My paraphrase)
From childhood, we accept what we like from our surroundings and drop the undesirables. This is because we see the benefits of one and the disadvantages of the other. Adults invest in relationships, jobs, projects that we deem beneficial because they seem so. Today, some people would take what God asked Abram to do as suicide. To go to where? With who? How? Questions that would immediately arise.
Now, we may not know where to go, how to fend for ourselves, or what the future holds, God is asking us to follow Him into the unknown. He is asking us to walk by faith in the creator of the universe, the one who holds tomorrow. I see Ruth, who was favored by God (though unaware of it) because of a choice she made. I see Abram, blessed beyond any human’s wildest dreams, because he obeyed.
Yes, we don’t know tomorrow, but we know who does. Things may seem tight all over the world, but our Father has told us not to worry about anything, but to bring all our worries and fears to Him, for He cares and loves us. It does seem today that we have two choices:
- To continue walking in fear and worry about the unknown
- To walk by faith and rest in God who owns and controls the unknown, fashioning it into whatever pleases Him.
Make the right choice.
Till next time, be transformed!!
Transformation Place 