Where is He Leading You?

Unfortunately I have been away from writing for a few short days. I’ve been preparing for Christmas, which means lots of baking (but mainly cookie testing). I read Genesis 12 today, which recounts the call of Abram (later Abraham). It’s an amazing story, and inspiration of faith. God calls Abram right out of the blue, and tells him to move his family with the promise of future fame. Abram, amazingly, complies. Don’t think it’s that special? What if God called you to move across the country to a place you’ve never been, what would you do? I find it difficult when God calls me to do the little things around here, what if He were to tell me to go to Oregon or Montana?

            The other interesting aspect of the story is that God’s promise is never fulfilled in Abram’s lifetime. God promises that He will make Abram’s name great, and that never really happens until much later when Israel becomes its own nation. You could even argue, with good reason, that God’s promise to Abram is the first promise of the coming of Jesus; Jesus was in Abram’s family line and fulfilled God’s plan to reconnect with His people.

            So what can we get from this? Well, it is clear that God’s promises are always fulfilled, but not necessarily on our time frame. We pray a lot for things to happen, and are often disappointed when we don’t get what we want. That does not mean that God is not listening and it certainly does not mean that He doesn’t love us. He just acts according to His plan, which we are not always knowledgeable about. That dream job may be 15 years away, I may not have a family of my own until I’m 35—either way we cannot lose faith and hope in God’s promise for our lives, because He always comes through. All Abram wanted was a nice home and five or six kids, what he got was a nation, and Messiah, in his family line. Imagine what God has in store for you!

            This Christmas season, while the gifts we receive on the 25^th may be nice, never forget the gifts from God. God blesses us more than we could ever imagine, sometimes we lose sight of that though because we tend to focus on the bad in our lives instead of the good.