When God chose the nation of Israel as His own nation… a nation He would make a covenant with… He selected one man to be the father of this nation. Abraham. When God launched the church, He chose a man who would take the gospel to the Gentiles. Paul. Imagine being chosen for such great work… for such a grand purpose. I believe, though, that for His purposes to be activated in their lives, two things needed to take place. Let’s narrow it down to two words… obedience and abandonment. In fact, these words are intertwined for the Christian.
God instructed Abraham to abandon his land and go to a different land. Hebrews 11:8 says, “It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going.” Hence, Abraham needed to leave everything he knew… his home, his land, his community. And he was to go where God told him to go. We don’t know how hard it may have been for him but Abraham obeyed.
God told Paul to abandon the old and cling to the new. He was steeped in religion, legalism, and the Old Testament law. But God told him to walk away from all of that and embrace the new life God was offering him. He must say good-bye to the old covenant and grasp onto the new covenant. Paul obeyed. He said in Galatians 2:20: “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
God has a purpose for each of us. The purpose God has for you and for me isn’t of less importance than what God had for Abraham or Paul. However, God is calling each of us to the same two things: obedience and abandonment. These things must be operational in our lives for His purposes to be activated. Abandonment may be the hardest though.
We hold tightly to things, right? People, our family, our heritage, the things we’ve worked hard for, our property, our rights. The tighter we hold, the harder it is to give them up. But God may ask you and me to abandon those things for Him. God asking Abraham to abandon his land was to fulfill God’s purposes for His people, His nation. God asking Paul to abandon the old was to fulfill God’s purposes for His Church. God asking you and me to abandon ourselves is also for His purposes. Like Abraham and Paul, He has something mighty planned for my life but abandoning myself to God – giving up my will, my rights – is probably what will activate His purposes going forth in my life. Something to think about, right?
Let’s narrow this down a little more… God may be convicting your heart about things that may be standing in the way for His purposes going forth in your life. Maybe a show you’ve been watching, the time you spend on social media, an addiction, a generational sin, an idol, someone you’ve been listening to, divisiveness, quarreling. Abandonment means that I walk away from things that are not of God and I cling to the things that align with the Word of God. I’m going to be careful to listen to God and be willing to abandon unhealthy lifestyles, sinful practices, and ungodly attitudes. When God says to walk away, I want to obey. Hope this encourages you today.