By Allen White
When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking
firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. On that
day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, "To your descendants I
give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates- the
land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites,
Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites." Genesis 15:17-21 (NIV)
That’s a lot of
–ites. Now, the land promised to Abram wasn’t the former home of all of these
–ites. It was their present home. You would think that if God gave the land, He
would just hand it over. All of the –ites would get some sort of eviction
notice. Maybe they would leave with an apology, “We’re sorry we were living on
your land. We’ve packed up and will leave it in good shape for you. We didn’t
realize that this was your land.”
God was very clear about the obstacles that Abram would
face: childlessness, opposition, slavery, and then more opposition. You wonder
why God gave Abram so much advance warning. Was God outlining a clear path
through the murkiness of Abram’s thinking? Was God’s direction such a new thing
for Abram that God simply didn’t want to leave any room for misunderstanding? Considering
that the last time God communicated with humans was at the tower of Babel (Genesis
11), Abram definitely needed to grow in his understanding of a relationship
with God.
God didn’t paint a rosy picture for Abram. We don’t always
have as much information in God’s leading, but what we do understand is the
difficulties are not necessarily counter to God’s leading. We enter a “spin
cycle of success: Change, Conflict, then Growth” as Ed Young, Jr. puts it. The
challenge is not so much in the difficulties as it is in our persistence. Our
success comes when we complete the process. Failure comes if we stop.
Where is God leading you today? While we shouldn’t be
surprised by problems, they are never comfortable. God is not intentionally
trying to frustration you. He is causing you to grow. If it feels like too
much, God provides the ability to continue. Just ask Him.
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