Monday Manna—Going into Blessing

Time for Monday Manna hosted by Joanne at An Open Book. Check out more thoughts on Philippians 4:13 there. I am hooking today's Monday Manna onto my Scripture reading for today from Genesis 10, 11. It works very well—thanks, Joanne.

“Terah took his son, Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there. Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Haran” —Genesis 11:31, 32.

What stopped Terah from completing the journey to Canaan? It would be left for his son, Abram, to respond to God’s call and leave, not Ur, but Haran, to finish the move that Terah had started.

Did the road ahead seem too difficult, too fraught with impossibilities?

We are not told that Terah’s vision of settling in Canaan was the result of his response to the call of God, as was true in Abram’s case. Perhaps that is the important point. Sometimes God’s call is the only thing that keeps us going. In the challenges and changes that are so often part of life overseas, I can personally testify to the number of times that’s been true in my life. Only God has made the impossibility of staying one more second, not only a possibility but a reality.

For Terah, staying wasn’t the problem but going certainly was. He got so far and then stopped. He would die in Haran, never seeing the land God would give to his son and to his son’s descendants.

Staying has it’s own challenges, but moving on into the unknown is unique in its scariness. This verse from Philippians 4:13 is especially significant as I face major changes in just a few weeks. “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”

There are so many details to look after—and many are not little ones. I’m in uncharted territory and sometimes feeling very alone. I believe the Lord is calling me on and because he is the one who is calling, I know he will bless. But that doesn’t prevent me from feeling moments of sheer panic as I try to deal with things that are beyond my comfort zone, and wait for answers whose timing is beyond my control.

Terah chose not to go—and missed the blessing. Abram went. I will take my little leaps of faith because what Paul wrote is true, I can do what needs to be done because he’s called. He will give me strength because he has called. I can wait for the answers because he has called, and because he will not disappoint. To those who respond to his call, he supplies everything that is needed.