Genesis 12:4 says, “So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken
to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he
departed from Haran.”
To give you the context, the chapters before this text talk
about the descendants of Noah. We meet Abram from the list, and so far, he
hasn’t said anything. We don’t know much about him, but just as soon as we see
his name, we see God talk to him. He tells him to leave his country and that
Abram will be blessed and become a great nation.
In verse four, you still don’t hear from Abram talk at all.
However, his obedience is considered righteousness. We don’t hear a long
dialogue between God and Abram where Abram defends his desires to stay or where
he may ask any specifying details. All we see is Abram departed in complete
obedience. My question is how?
How can one leave everything that he has with no word or
argument? That’s so… unreal… But isn’t that what we are called to do anyways?
Are we not called to forsake all we have in take up our cross and follow after
Christ? In my life this has been the biggest struggle. How do I completely sell
out my life to the sake of spreading the Gospel?
On the side, I think we can get caught up in sharing the
Gospel just as much as we get caught up in reading the Bible and pursuing
personal holiness. They can become idols for us. If my main purpose is to
spread the Gospel, that becomes my god. My main purpose should be to pursue
Christ. He is God and nothing else can even come lose to it, not even His
commandments.
It's so unreal to really understand what it means to fully chase after Christ. We don't really know what that looks like, but God has called us and we are called to respond in obedience. So just like Abram, are we leaving everything else behind for the sake of Christ. It's all that matters. I have lived a pretty simple and short life, but I have learned and experienced that there really is no other reason to be alive than to praise His name and give Him glory.
So what can I do but just pray and pursue and ask for God to
change my heart? We are so incapable of reaching God, that all we can do is
truly be blessed by His grace. How I wish that God could just completely take
me away to be with Him forever, but I don’t even know what that really even
means, besides a basic idea of Heaven. So God, let this be our cry: be gracious
to us and show us grace if it’d be Your will - Forsake All
