The story of Abraham’s departure from the land he was living in has been on my mind lately. What is interesting is that the Bible talks about the tower of Babel in Genesis 11 and then it reports much genealogy which gets us to the story of Abraham.

The interesting part I think is that we see the genealogy of Abraham laid out for us: Noah → Shem → Arphaxad → Shelah → Eber → Peleg → Reu → Serug → Nahor → Terah → Abram. There was much going on between the time of Noah and Abram. It is hard to say how long this time frame was, but it is estimated to have lasted somewhere between 350 to 400 years. That’s a long time for the Bible not to mention anyone else as playing a role in the Bible.

And then we are thrust upon the scene of Abram being told by God that he was to pack up everything and leave when he was 75 years old. He had come to live in Haran on the way to the land of Cannan, because his father had moved his family there (Genesis 11:31). So Abram listens to God and moves his family and his nephew’s family as instructed. They leave on this journey. They have considerable livestock. The journey if we look at where he travels is somewhere approximately 1,100 – 1,500 miles long. The Bible doesn’t tell us how long this journey took, but if they traveled 10-15 miles per day, the journey could have lasted several months to a year. The whole time God is telling Abram, don’t worry where you are going! I’m going to take you there and it’s going to be amazing.

Hebrews 11:8-9 states that the reason Abraham went out and did this was because he had faith in God. His faith in God led to his obedience: “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise.”

I want to hone in on the mindset of Abraham though, because it shows us a lot about what God was looking for. God essentially is looking for this same mindset in us today. We may have a tendency to get in the thick of living and miss the point of living. We are here as sojourners. It doesn’t matter where we live in this world.  We don’t have a real home in this world. It’s nice to have consistency and safety. It’s nice to own nice things. None of that is wrong. The question then is, what is our attitude?

I want to set forth a few Scriptures, highlighting this journey of sojourners [all from the English Standard Version):

• Genesis 23:4 – Abraham said, “I am a sojourner and foreigner among you; give me a possession of a burying place among you, that I may bury my dead.”
• Psalm 39:12 – “Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear to my cry; hold not your peace at my tears! For I am a sojourner with you, a guest, like all my fathers.”
• Hebrews 11:13 – “These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.”
• 1 Peter 2:11 – “Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.”

The mindset of looking to God — allowing Him to lead, guide and help us in our lives — is of the utmost importance for us. I know that this story has been told time and again in our Church literature and in messages, but truly, I think that it is so refreshing to read this story and to realize that this life that we are living has been experienced by others before. This is not something new. The stress, the anxiety, the frustrations–I am sure Abraham felt those, and I am sure the other people mentioned in the Scriptures above also felt the same way. And yet, God led all of them!

The encouragement we need is found in these stories. We need to meditate on them and then take action, by allowing God to show us what needs to be done. It becomes imperative that we learn this lesson and learn how to allow God to lead. God will allow us to live our lives on our own until we come to the point where we realize that it doesn’t really work. In fact, this is the story of man for the last six thousand years. God allows man to go his own way to learn that it doesn’t work.

Where is God leading each of us? This is something we can each think about deeply and meditate on.

Like God promising Abraham a good land for his descendants, God is promising US access into His Family as God beings. That is where God is ultimately leading each and every one of us. If we set our faith and sight on that, we can more easily learn to turn our lives over to God and allow Him to help us as we live our lives. 

We are now a few weeks past the Feast of Tabernacles. We have settled back into our routines, and we are once again dealing with the things that make up our individual lives. 

Usually, after a Feast, I personally feel a very strong desire to once again be a Christian. The fire is burning within me and the excitement for what we believe is strongly in my mind and it is revived with me. Then, as the weeks start to blend together, the daily life becomes mundane. It is a challenge to maintain the amount of zeal and excitement that was felt at the Feast of Tabernacles. 

I don’t think that I am alone in feeling this way!

How do we maintain the feelings that we had at the Feast? 

We are told many times that while it is a proclivity for people to feel this way – to get sad, frustrated, angry or mad – we must realize that we don’t have to feel this way. In fact, we are told we are to be just the opposite. 

We are reminded that we are to be zealous, on fire, stirring up the Spirit of God within us and enduring (Romans 12:11; Hebrews 10:36; 1 Corinthians 14:12; 2 Timothy 1:6-7). This doesn’t leave a lot of room for becoming lazy or disinterested.

I have been thinking deeply about how to sustain that same level of enthusiasm that I felt at the Feast. One of the things that has been coming to mind over and over is a deep need to spend time in Bible study. We often emphasize that it is important to study, but I truly wonder how much time we each spend reading and studying the Bible on a regular basis. 

We find in Hebrews 4:12 (in the New International Version) a very decisive reason as to WHY we should be studying: “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” 

We can understand our thoughts, our emotions, our zeal, our fire and passion for the Truth when we are studying the Word of God. Without this studying, our religion may become empty. 

Turning to 2 Timothy 2:15 and quoting from the Authorized Version, we find another example: “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” Again, this shows us that in studying the Word of God — ingraining it into our thoughts — it will become a part of who we are. It will sustain and help us to maintain the type of attitudes and mindsets that we need in dealing with the situations that come up in our lives.

When we fail to or refuse to spend time studying the Word of God — because we are too lazy, or too busy, or too tired, or not feeling like it – we may, to an extent, deny the power of God and show our human pride.

The antithesis of this is found in the letter of James.

Again, using the Authorized Version, James 1:21 states: “Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.”

Let us notice that it is with meekness – that attribute that we need to make it into the Kingdom of God (Matthew 5:5) – that we need to be spending time studying. WHY? To enable us to use the Word in our lives. In Romans, chapter 11, the Apostle Paul shows how and why we are grafted into the Family of God. But he also reminds us, as Christ also did (John 15:2) that just because we are grafted into the God Family doesn’t mean that we cannot lose out on bearing fruits. We should understand that reading the Bible and studying it is an integral part of our Christianity; it is not merely a nice idea or a “maybe I’ll get to that later.” NO! It is a need. It is one of the lifelines to God. 

When we study, we are showing God that we care about His words. And as we read previously – these words are “ALIVE and ACTIVE”.  In Isaiah 55:11, in the New International Version, we read that God continues to lead us through His omnipotent Word: “… so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

That is the God we worship. That is the God with whom we are to have a relationship! This is the remembrance we need to bring forth into our lives so that we not only make time to study, but that we come to desire that study time — to desire to be in the presence of God and to really understand His power and what it can accomplish in our lives. 

We each have an opportunity and a responsibility in our calling. The way in which we live our study life will have a direct impact on our individual lives, the lives of our families, and the lives of our fellow Christians as we each seek to understand how to grow. To accomplish this, we must be studying and then applying the Word of God diligently. 

If you may not know what to study, our Q&As in our weekly Updates would be of great help.

Ephesians 3:14-21 nicely wraps this all together and summarizes it for us in this way: “For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”