Thursday, December 1

ABRAM: PROMISED LAND OR EGYPT?

Genesis 12

Welcome. Today, as we are taking another step to the stable, we are going to make a stop and see how God changed a man named Abram. In the beginning of Genesis 12, we see that God is telling Abram to leave his country and his family, and to go to a new land. God is calling Abram to leave everything and everyone who is familiar to him, and to come to a new way of life—a life of prayer. This new life is going to be one of faith in God alone, not leaning on anyone or anything for support. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your path." Proverbs 3:5,6

Now Abram did not always trust completely in God. As you can see in vs. 7 of our chapter, God gave Abram a great promise of many others to join him in this new life of trusting God through prayer. Then Abram built an altar to the Lord, but he did not humble himself and pray. As you can see, starting in vs. 10, when a famine came into the land, Abram left and went to Egypt and told his wife to lie about who she was. When we come to church and say that we believe in God, but do not dedicate ourselves to true trust and prayer to God, we will go off in the wrong direction every time.

Praise God—Abram left Egypt and went back to the place that God spoke to him. Look at Chapter 13:1-4 and see what I mean. This time, Abram called on the name of the Lord, and then, in vs. 12, we see that Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan. He has settled himself into a life of trusting God and prayer. God did not bless Abram just because he went back to the place where he built an altar; God blessed him because Abram had trust and faith in the Almighty God. Galatians 3:9 says, "So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham." What a great blessing for you and me! Now it does take a change of heart, you know. You can’t just go to church and expect to know God’s direction for your life. It takes a humble submission to the life of Jesus Christ. Jesus, the Son of God, spent much humble time in prayer to follow the Father’s will, and we must do the same. See Luke 5:16, 6:12 and Mark 1:35

So today, as we make the next step towards the stable, let’s stop what we are doing and bow our knee before God Almighty. We can see that Abram had a choice—to humbly submit to God in prayer and go to the Promised Land, or to go out on his own and end up in Egypt. We all can admit, if we are honest with ourselves, that we have not made such good choices on our own. Galatians 3:7 says, "Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham." If we take the same steps as Abram and Jesus Christ did into that land of prayer, we are the fulfillment of that promise given in 12:7—"To your descendants I will give this land." Let’s take those steps of Abram and humbly submit ourselves to God in prayer and let Him be our guide throughout this life.

~ Debbie Frantz