We Are All On A Journey #2 - Leave it all behind

To go on a journey, you must leave other things behind


    Willingness to part with everything you know as familiar and comfortable is just the start of the adjustments you must make before you blast off into the wild blue yonder. Abram left every place and person familiar to him based on a voice he heard, the Voice of God. He was seventy-five years old, married and had a lot of people and property that he was responsible for. But he was willing to go when he heard that voice. Contrast this attitude with another famous adventurer in the Bible, Moses. 
    In the story of the Exodus, Moses responds to the voice of God by responding a little differently than Abram. "But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”(Exodus 3:11) Moses' answer was basically, "No thanks. I'm not up to the job." You see, he had an early dream of saving his people from their oppression, but tried to do it in his own power and timing and failed miserably, so much so that he was exiled from the country, running for his life. 
    Both of these great men of faith had something to leave in order to step forward toward the real plan and purpose for their lives. Both of them had former successes, and failures. Moses had to leave the comfort of a life that was ordered and simple and well controlled. He had to recapture his idea of God's promises that he had heard earlier in his life. He needed an update of his original dream. In fact, his hopes and dreams needed to be resurrected to new life. God did this by coming near to him and by answering Moses' prayers time and time again in a miraculous way. Abram, on the other hand, had had a life of relative success, and needed to come to a place of humility and reliance upon God, when he had been used to taking care of things on his own terms.