Heroes: Devotions From Time of Grace MinistrySample

OBEDIENCE: ABRAHAM

If there's anything that people can't stand, it's being told what to do. It's not just teenagers who rebel against authority. The sinful beast that lives in each of us wants to be god and lord of our lives. We are all born saying "no" to our Creator. Even after we have been brought to faith, we have to work daily to subdue our drive to disobey.

The Lord picked out one of His believers in the Chaldean city of Ur, not far from what is now the Iraqi city of Basra, and directed him to pack up and move to Canaan, many hundreds of miles on the other end of the Fertile Crescent. "The LORD had said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you.' . . . So Abram left, as the LORD had told him" (Genesis 12:1,4).

Abram (his original name before God changed it) could not possibly have known all the reasons God had for the move, but he went anyway. He had to leave his house to live in a tent, leave his familiar surroundings to live with strangers, and leave behind most of his family and friends. But he went anyway, because God directed him to. God blessed him by making him the patriarch of the Israelite nation and father of all believers. But in about 2091 B.C. he didn't know that; all he had to work with was the command.

Abraham is my hero for obeying God even though he didn't know where he was going. Abraham is my hero for trusting that God's ways are always good ways.