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Why Walking with God Means Traveling Without an Itinerary

June 1, 2018

Genesis 12:1-5

The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.

2 “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.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”

4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. 5 He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.

CONSIDER THIS

Walking with God is far from a romantic adventure. It is to leave home on a trip without knowing the destination. In other words, when we walk with the Lord we gain the great gift of God’s presence but we lose any sense of itinerary. Did you catch that in today’s text?

The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.

God didn’t tell Abraham where he was going; only to go. God began with a man and a woman in a flourishing garden. After eleven chapters of catastrophic failure, God begins again, only this time he chooses not to begin with flourishing but barrenness. God begins again with a man and woman of advanced years and no family.

This time, God does not speak words of Creation but of the promise of New Creation, again with unbridled flourishing.

2 “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.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”

Then we get the three words that start Genesis all over again: So Abram went.

So why does this text qualify for our Daily Text series on prayer? Abram shows us something utterly essential for anyone who aspires to walk with God in a life of prayer. I call it preemptive obedience. In making the decision to trust God’s promise, Abram decided in advance he would obey all of God’s instructions to come. The sure sign of trust in a promise is obedience to a plan you don’t get to see in advance. Yes, walking with God means traveling without an itinerary.

I’m not going to lie. This is not easy. It will surface every ounce of insecurity and fear within us. Trust, obedience, prayer, faith—this is the curriculum. Obedience is to trust as faith is to prayer. These are massive concepts that cannot really be thought through—only walked out. These ideas dwell in the realm of poetry—better yet, song.

Back in 1887, John Sammis, penned lyrics to a hymn that captures these mind bending ideas. Let’s give him the last word today.

“When we walk with the Lord
in the light of his word,
what a glory he sheds on our way!
While we do his good will,
he abides with us still,
and with all who will trust and obey.”

Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.

THE PRAYER

Lord Jesus, you are right here, right now. I love the idea that you have a plan for my life. I just want you to give it to me. Instead, you offer me yourself. I confess, I still want the itinerary. Teach me to trust and obey. Train my mind and heart with the grace of preemptive obedience. Right here, Jesus. Right now Jesus. Amen.

THE QUESTIONS

  1. Have you ever wondered how many people might have turned God down before he approached Abraham. Any thoughts about that?
  2. What makes it difficult for us human beings to add preemptive obedience to our trust? What about you in particular makes it hard to trust and obey?
  3. Think about how readily you will trust your phones maps application GPS for directions to get somewhere. What if you could trust Jesus like that?

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J.D. Walt, is a Bond Slave of the Lord Jesus Christ. jd.walt@seedbed.com.

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WHAT IS THIS? Wake-Up Call is a daily encouragement to shake off the slumber of our busy lives and turn our eyes toward Jesus. Each morning our community gathers around a Scripture, a reflection, a prayer, and a few short questions, inviting us to reorient our lives around the love of Jesus that transforms our hearts, homes, churches, and cities.

Comments and Discussion

One Response

  1. The challenge to people of faith is to learn how to follow.
    Central to that task is giving up the expectation of knowing where we are going.
    –M. Craig Barnes, “When God Interrupts: Finding New Life in Unwanted Change”

    betsy:0)

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