It happened again.
Last night, I was reading the passage in my “read the Bible in a year” (I’m behind… and reading chronologically), and it happened again.
God told Abram (before he was Abraham) to pack up everything and move to a whole new place. Did Abram balk? Nope. Did he argue? Nope. Did he try to bargain with God? Nope. He obediently packed it all up and went. He did exactly as he was told.
And do you suppose when he got to the place God led him, everything was peachy keen and awesome and wonderful? Get a load of Genesis 12:10 (NIV): “Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe.”
WHAT?!? No sooner does Abraham get to the place God leads him, but a famine strikes and he has to leave.
Seriously? First Mary has to travel when she’s hugely pregnant. Then Abraham does exactly what God says and runs smack into a famine. Hm. Obedience does not always guarantee an easy road, does it? Sometimes, we follow the plan only to see it apparently crumble before us. Here’s the thing, though… God is up to something, even then. Maybe he’s growing us. Maybe he’s ministering to someone else through us. But it’s never without purpose.
When I get frustrated and angry with God, maybe that’s when I should look at His servants in the Bible: Mary and her inconvenient travels and dirty stable; Abram and the famine; Joseph in prison; Elijah hiding in a cave; John on Patmos; the other eleven disciples martyred… I think I need an attitude adjustment. How ’bout you?
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