Leaving The Familiar

I have just released a new book called Following God. It is a 100 page devotional on the life of Abraham. Available on Amazon now. Here is a sample:

Following God often means leaving the familiar. Notice three things Abraham left:

The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.” Genesis 12:1

Leave your country. Have you ever been to a foreign country? It is a little unsettling when everything around you changes. When you don’t know the language. When you don’t know how to count the funny-looking coins. When the water in the toilet rotates the wrong way. When people drive the wrong way. Leaving the land of familiar is unsettling.

Leave your people. Leave the people who love you. Leave the people you love. Surround yourself with strangers. Separate yourself from your support system. Family means a lot of things to us. For one thing, family is a net we can fall back on. If things were to get really bad, I could move back in with my parents. My sisters or my brother would take me in if I needed them to. God said to leave all that. I wonder what that felt like.

Leave your father’s household. This is the one that Abraham didn’t exactly do. Lot went with him and was a pain in his side. Verse five says, “and the people they had acquired in Harran.” We are not sure who these people are. No one follows God perfectly, even the father of the faith. Thank God for grace.