On the Move With God

 DEVOTION

GENESIS

ON THE MOVE WITH GOD

Gen 12:4-5

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

NIV

This is the beginning of somewhat of a travel log of Abram, but we are impressed to stop at the start of this record of his journey. We know that God called Abram to leave all that he knew, his family, although he had Sarai and Lot and all the people he had acquired, which would have been employees or slaves, along with a great number of sheep. Some were Abram’s, some were Lot’s. What this tells us is this was not just one man following God, what might be described as a tribe of people under the leadership of Abram who is the man God speaks to. Abram was responsible for more than just himself, but the point we want to focus on is that when God told him to leave his country, family, and father’s household and go somewhere unfamiliar to him, he did what God told him. This should always be our story, to do what God tells us. Abram arrived at the land of Canaan, just as God said to him that was where he should be. It is interesting that when we follow the voice of God we will be exactly where he wants us to be. With Abram, it was a physical place, and that could apply to us as well. But we must always listen and hear the voice of God before we make any physical relocation. God will also speak to our hearts about any changes in our vocation, especially in ministry. The fact is that any change in our lives should be due to the call and direction of God, who may well be working through the Spirit who dwells within or through an audible voice, or it could be through what he has already said that is recorded for us within the written word. However God chooses the speak to us is obviously up to him, all we need to be is good listeners and obedient followers. It should be plain to us that our lives are not our own, that we are not the captain of our own ships, or the pilot of our own aircraft, or whatever other metaphor there might be that makes it clear, that we are in the hands of God. He is the one who breaks us, melts us, molds, us into the shape and size of a vessel he can fill, using us for his purpose, just as he did in the life of Abram. Our prayer should always be that God has his way with us and that we will always be in his perfect will for our lives. Let us always let God move us, let us always be on the move with God.