Just Start Walking

 

Just start walking...Perhaps this was Abram's (later Abraham's) motto, as seemingly out of nowhere, God called him to do something that, in my mind's eye, seemed to ask a lot of a foreigner who did not even know who God was, let alone follow Him. Yet that is precisely what God did. Oh, to be a fly on the wall between God's call and Abram's decision! I can imagine the family conversations, the weighing in or out of such an offer. The risk involved and the obscurity of this promise from a God unknown to Him. Yet, Abram got up and followed God right out of his comfort zone to a place he had never been or heard of all on the premise that God said He had chosen Abram to make him a great nation. In fact, God said His descendants would be so vast that they would not be able to be measured by the grains of sand on the beach or the number of stars in the sky. I would like to know if Abram had any reservations. Did he ask around if anyone knew this "God" who had called him to do such a risky thing, such a seemingly irresponsible thing — get up and leave everything? Did he have one of those? Should I stay, or should I go? Moments.

Then, God adds to His plan - a game changer if Abraham had even remotely been weighing the options. God said He would also give them a homeland, and the moment of decision followed when Abraham heard these words: 

'But you, Abraham, you will never possess the land; you will die, but your descendants will inherit this land.' 

Decision time was at hand. Was he going to either go after hearing this news trusting God would keep His promise or would he refuse the call on his life and never know what God would have done. 

Abraham decided to go with God on whatever this adventure would mean; so, he got up and just started walking. There were bumps in the road, and times when Abraham forgot who was leading the mission, such as the little white lie told in Egypt when he tried to pass Sara off as his sister out of fear getting them both got kicked out, actually, banned from Egypt. Or, the time, Sara had some of her own plans to have a baby, and she and wound up creating an opposing nation - not exactly part of the plan - but it did not take God by surprise!  Yes, obviously there were some human moments, times that showed they were ordinary people trying to follow God but forgetting that they were not making the plan themselves. Even amid the blunders of Abraham and Sara, the interruptions they created, and the consequences that resulted, God saw the faithfulness of Abraham and called him righteous. The faithfulness, not the perfection, of this man, called out resulted in the fulfillment of the plan of God for a great nation to come from this faithful servant. A plan that would lead to the coming of the Messiah, Jesus, all because Abraham decided to just start walking.

Are there things in your life that draws you to do a certain thing?  Situations that need an answer to the questions 'Should I... or should I not...'  Things that shift your thinking from your own plans to a willingness to open your heart to His plans. If so, it may be time to just start walking with the understanding that Abraham came to know. That our faith can't be sustained through our man-made plans but rather prosper by trusting in and following close to the One who has made the plan.

 By faith, Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.  By faith, he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. 

Hebrews 11:8-10 (NIV)

 And so, from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.

Hebrews 11:12 (NIV)

Whatever God calls you to is reason enough to just start walking.

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