Presence Weekly 7/17/23

[The Devo] Transitions: The Necessary and Often Uncertain

As I find myself staring into the eyes of a new life chapter, the Lord has brought to mind the story of His call to Abram in Genesis chapter 12:

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

It is hard for our Western minds to fully grasp the gravity of what the Lord is asking of Abram here, but let’s take a moment to try to put ourselves in his shoes. We learn in the following verse that Abram was 75 years old when he left for Canaan. Most of those 75 years had been spent with his wife and extended family in the land of Haran. His father died there. It was Abram’s home and he had known little outside of it. Furthermore, Abram’s ancient Near Eastern culture was heavily collectivist. Our notion that our children will someday reach the age of about 18 and “fly the coop” to begin a life apart from their parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, and grandparents was completely unheard of. Folks generally stuck together back then far more than we do today. So, for the Lord to ask Abram to leave his kin and move away to a foreign land was pretty unthinkable. It just didn’t make any sense.

It’s sort of like me attending a private college and spending amounts of money that my twenty-something-year-old brain can’t even comprehend, and all for a degree in Theology that is destined to never make me much money. Or me moving over a thousand miles away from my family and the breathtaking beauty of Northern Virginia to end up in Oklahoma of all places. I’m sure the feeling is not completely foreign to any of you. I believe the Lord has a habit of calling his children into crazy and unimaginable situations.

So what did Abram do, you ask?

He went:

4 So Abram went, as the LORD had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan.

This reminds me of Simon Peter’s response to Jesus in John chapter 6:

….66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. 67 So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

Peter's words here sum up well how I feel when I am called into disorienting and confusing situations by God. Who else would I follow? Where else would I go? For if all the Scriptures are true, then surely a few tough financial situations and relationship strains are worth it for Jesus.

Lord, give us the grace to do the right things even when they are hard instead of taking the easy way out.

If you hear anything from me today, I want you to know that if or when the Lord calls you to do something that doesn't make sense, you are not alone. He’s been in the business of doing that for a while now. But Jesus is worth it.

Nichole Rittgers, Ministry Resident.

Last Things

We will have two podcasts up this week, and Volume 2 of the Presence journal is just around the corner.

Please let up know how we can pray for you and encourage you.