Choices That Affect A Bigger Plan

Monday, March 9

Genesis 12:1-4 (NIV)

‭‭”The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran.”

Devotion

God called Abram to leave his family, all that was secure, that which was familiar, his inheritance, and his country. Abram was not told where he was going, but he was obedient to the voice of God. He packed his household and set out to walk in faith toward God’s promises. He walked toward God and away from a home where idol worship was the choice among his family.

Abram was an older man of seventy-five and had no children, yet God told him that He would make him a nation. He had left a place where he was the son and heir of his earthly father. Abram did not settle for the name that he could possess as his father Terah’s son. He left to embrace the name that the Lord had for him—a great name, but more importantly, a name from a great God.

Abram was his father’s firstborn son and a blessing in that home. God had more than that for him, though. In God’s economy, Abram was to become a blessing to all families of the earth and to generations upon generations. Abram’s choice to follow God has affected the entire world!

It is easy to settle for the familiar and what seems to be secure. It isn’t always comfortable to walk away from a place that God knows is not the best place for us to grow in the things of God. Abram’s father’s home was filled with idol worship. God calls us out of our comfort zones for bigger blessings—not just for ourselves and for our growth in Him, but so that we will become a blessing to others.

He calls us to be obedient, sometimes without knowing what is ahead of us. However, when we make the choice to step out in faith, God’s blessings far exceed what we leave behind. God has a bigger plan than the name that we can make for ourselves or the name that the world gives. He wants to give us a new name as His son or daughter.

He can multiply our blessings so that we become a blessing to others. God can bring us into a land filled with His promises. Most of all, though, our greatest choice and our greatest blessing is in following God—in loving and serving Him, and in having Him in our lives.

Today's Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father, 

Thank You for calling us into Your greater plan. Give us the courage to obey Your voice, even when we do not see the full path ahead. Help us to trust that what You have prepared is greater than what we leave behind. Shape our lives so that we become a blessing to others and bring glory to Your name. In the Name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.

Apply It Today

Ask yourself today: Is there something God is calling me to step away from or step into in faith? Choose obedience in one area of your life today, trusting that your faithful step may be part of God’s bigger plan to bless others through you.

Resources

• If you missed yesterday’s message, “When The Waiting Comes,” take some time to watch it today.  It’s a timely reminder that God is still working even in the waiting seasons of our lives.

• Read Isaiah 55:8-9 and be reminded that God's plans are bigger than what we can see.