God's TMI
Sometimes I think, "man - it'd be nice if God would just tell me what the heck I'm doing here and why He called me to do thus and such." Then I look back at past instances where I felt God called me to something. That something usually turns out NOTHING like what I expected, and most often a hundred times better than I could have hoped or imagined. The thing is - I'm not sure I would have been as likely to follow God if I REALLY knew what God had in store for me. I'd like to SAY I would follow Him no matter what, but if I'm real with myself, I'm not sure I'd be thrilled listening to God tell me that I'm going to go to such and such place, expect great things, get a big bag of suck, but the big bag of suck will turn into something amazing if I just wait it out and stand by what God has called me to do.
Here's where I look at this passage and am amazed. God tells Abram, "your kids, grandkids, etc. are going to be miserable for 400 years. Sure, I'll punish the folks that hurt them, and they'll be better off in the end, but it's going to be bad for a while. You, you're going to live a long time and die. And the land I promised you? Yeah, you don't get it yet, because the people who own the land now aren't bad enough tenants to kick out yet." Ok, maybe I read a LITTLE into that, but in the end, God really offers Abram what for me would be WAY too much information (TMI). It might be a lack of faith on my part, or maybe Abram felt exactly the same way I would and thought, "wow God, thanks... I guess."
When it's all said and done, I'm amazed at the faith and the courage it took Abram to do what God called him to do, even though the outcome seemed really sketchy. I hope that if God ever decides to reveal this kind of information of my future to ME, I'll be as ready and willing to stand up and follow Him, no matter what.
Created over 2 years ago
