Read Genesis 12:1-9

When you look back across your life, what do you see? Most often, our memories are built around watershed moments when we did things that changed direction or path. All the smaller moments are more or less gathered around those “big” moments, aren’t they?

The same thing happens in the life of Abram. Here is a man who, according the Scriptures, lived for 175 years (Genesis 25:7); and we have maybe enough information to fill a few weeks of his life. When we first meet him, he is already 75 years old. We know nothing about Abram’s life for a span equivalent to a good lifetime for one of us today.

It is rather absurd for us to make assumptions about this man’s life, isn’t it?

We do know that when Abraham left his home in Haran (v 4), his family had been there long enough to put down some pretty good roots. While we know that God called Abram to leave Haran, it is not impossible that other circumstances – crowding, scarcity of pastureland, plague – made him more amenable to the move.  Whatever the reasons, Abram took a huge leap into the unknown and led his band down into the area of Palestine.

Hope begins at the edges of home. If there is no risk, then is there really hope? He stepped out of his father’s shadow and struck out to do what God wanted him to do.

And let’s not forget that Abram did it. Without Abram hoping in the Lord, where would we be? The entire history of civilization hangs on the fact that Abram believed God and drew hope from his relationship with him.

Does God have a risk for you that you are reluctant to take? Take a few minutes to write down your hesitations.