Wednesday, June 12

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Genesis 12:1-5

The Lord said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.

“I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you;

I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

So Abram left, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran. He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.

Ephesians 3:14-21

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now to  him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

My wife, Lorene, and I met in 1982 while she was a student at Taylor University and I was working on the staff.

Our relationship developed slowly but by the summer of 1983 we were dating and by the summer of 1984 the relationship was at the point where we, I, kind of had to make a decision.

Was I going to pursue the relationship to the next level; that is, to commitment, engagement and marriage? 

I have to admit that the “commitment” thing scared me. I really didn’t know how to make that decision.

That summer I traveled to Bolivia on a short term mission team. While I was there the relational decision was never far from my mind; in fact, I would say that I thought about it, and about her, constantly.

Toward the end of the trip our team was in a remote part of Bolivia, in a tiny village called “Tambo”, where we were staying at a small mission school. Late one night I walked out onto a field at the school and stared up at the incredible night sky.

And I started to pray about the decision I knew I needed to make but didn’t know how.

As I recall, most of my prayer had to do with asking God a bunch of questions. 

“How do I know if she is the one you have for me?”

“What if she doesn’t want to go in the direction I think you are taking me?

“What if she changes?”

“What if this…what if that…?

Then, in one of those times when God’s voice seems exceedingly clear, he said, “Why don’t you worry about you instead of her? Why don’t you ask me to help you become the man I want you to become, and let me take care of her.”

And that was it. By the time I got back to my room that night I knew what I would do.

I think Abram might have had a similar experience with God. While we don’t know for sure, I think that it’s quite likely that after God said, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you…” Abram may have had some questions. And, certainly, those questions would have started with “Why?” and “What?”

“Why do I need to leave now? Why are you telling me to do this? What’s the plan? What’s the purpose? What’s out there that I need to see or do?”

And I think what God says next is his answer to those questions:

“I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you;

I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

Evidently, that promise was enough for Abram because he packed up his family and his stuff and headed for Canaan.

Back to my story; I got home from that trip and 3 months later proposed to Lorene. We were married about 6 months after that and have now enjoyed 28 years of marriage, family and ministry together. Had I known that night in Bolivia what I know now, my decision would have been a no-brainer! But I didn’t know all that God had planned for me; I only had a promise. He said, in effect, “You follow me and I’ll take care of her.”

In Ephesians 3, Paul says it this way:

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

I believe that’s the first part of the blessing God promised to Abram and his descendants; to know the love of God in all its fullness; to know the gospel.

And then Paul continues:

Now to  him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Just as I could not have imagined the blessings God had planned for me that night I stood under the stars so long ago; just as you cannot see everything God has planned for your future; I don’t think Abram could have begun to imagine what all God would do in and through his life. 

But he had a promise. And the promise was enough.

Pastor Brian Coffey