Pack Your Bags

Genesis 12: 1, 4 – 5

“Go from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you.”

So Abram went away as the Lord had spoken to him; and Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. Abram took his wife Sarai and his nephew Lot, and all their possessions which they had accumulated, and the people which they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan.

We are still talking about getting in the game which is a metaphor for seeking God’s beautiful plan for our lives and following it. Yesterday we saw that Abraham’s (Abram) Father, Terah, began well but stopped short of God’s plan for him. It could well be that Terah was to be the Father of many nations. He headed towards Canaan but stopped in Haran. Unfortunately for Terah, the blessing was in Canaan, not Haran. He missed his boat.

In today’s passage we witness God telling Abram to pack up his family and belongings and head to Canaan. The difference between Abram and his father, Terah, is that Abram followed through.

This is actually the beginning of the blessing. Look at verses 2 and 3, “And I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” It is through Abram’s execution of God’s plan that we enjoy the blessing today. All families of the earth are blessed because Abraham packed his bags and followed God’s plan for his life.

God was looking for someone to covenant with so that He could get the blessing to humanity and Abraham volunteered through obedience. Abraham is called the Father of Faith, and I don’t deny that, but it was obedience that made Abram into Abraham and brought the blessing to you and to me. It was obedience through which the covenant was able to be implemented.

Abraham understood that God had a good plan for him and he believed that God would make that promise into a fact. He believed God and followed the plan. Because of that he became the father of nations. Because he followed through on God’s plan, the entire world is blessed. I just want to remind you of Jeremiah 29: 11 to let you think about how God thinks about us and operates with us, “For I know the plans that I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans for prosperity and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” Amen!

Get in the Game

Jeremiah 29: 11

“For I know the plans that I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans for prosperity and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”

Writing yesterday’s Word of the Day caused me to think of this verse. To know God’s plans for us is to know goodness and hope. No matter where you are in your life, regardless of past failures or even accomplishments, there is a new horizon out there for you. God has a good plan for you right now. No matter how young or old you are, our Father has a future for you. He has not put you on the bench.

This can be the revelation for which you have been waiting. Perhaps you think you messed up too badly in your last outing. Maybe you think your opportunities have passed you by. Let me assure you, that is not what Yahweh, our God and Father, is thinking about you. He has a plan for you right now. He wants to get you back in the game. He has hope to give you. He has a plan for you and He has your future. So, drink your Gatorade, lace up your shoes and get in the game.

Step one is to go talk with your coach and find out the game plan. You cannot execute until you know the plan. Second, do not be afraid of a little training. Come on, every great athlete or anyone who has succeeded at anything has had to put in some practice. Make it fun. You’ve got the best coach in the world, in the universe for that matter. Enjoy the time of preparation. When it’s go time, you will be bolstered by the time spent in practice. Now, go have some fun.

My Plan

Jeremiah 29: 11

“For I know the plans that I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.”

God had a plan for us from the beginning. Before He created us He made a plan for our success and well-being. I intend to use this week’s devotions to show the plan He had for us and how it has unfolded with time.

It really begins before the Garden of Eden when He conceived us and the earth. He made us an ideal place to live, learn and grow. That was only the beginning, of course, but all through time He had a plan for our welfare, a plan that was not for calamity. By His own admission, it was a plan designed to give us a future and to bathe us in hope continually. Never were we to feel hopeless, mired down in tragedy and misfortune. His plan was for perfect peace, “Shalom” in the Hebrew, which is the all encompassing fullness of everything being as it should be. Shalom is rendered welfare in the New American Standard because the word peace doesn’t incorporate the fullness of meaning, and in fact, paragraphs of text cannot fully convey the complete provision, health, wellness and blessing which is included in the word “Shalom”.

It is a pinnacle word for us though, one which is at the very peak of expression because it describes the plan God had for us. His plan was for a perfect environment provisioned with everything we need and want. More than anything, His plan had us walking hand in hand with Him daily so that we would never have a want in our hearts. We should have never experienced one moment of loneliness, isolation or one unfulfilled second. His plan met all of our physical, emotional and spiritual needs and desires. His plan for us was heaven, heaven here on earth, a safe place where we could bask in His radiance and skip around like hinds on the heights.

The plan became corrupted, but stay tuned as we venture forward, looking deeper into God’s plan for us. Through this brief, but exciting journey, you will come to know, in your heart, where your life with Him is meant to reside today.