An after-thought as I continue to ponder Abraham & Sarah’s story…

The Lord has re-written and re-written the “plan” for our life too.  We have moved more times than I ever want to count.  I would have happily lived and died in the same house, same town, same everything ~ but God’s plans were so very different!  We have operated on faith alone, more than once – without much of a plan.  But we were confident that the Lord was the One leading us to take each step and we had enough faith to obey.  It might not have been strong faith, with no reserve, no questions, no struggle… but it was ENOUGH faith to obey and follow the path to which He pointed.

And so, each time, we have left the comfortable, the known, and the planned… and went further out, further from family and friends and places where we had history – all to grow closer to the Lord and to become part of His Story!  Walking faithfully with Him, eyes on a greater inheritance than this earthly life can offer.

On occasion, I have caught myself trying to articulate the feeling of deep loss each time we have moved.  Each transition has been marked with struggle, emotional pain – a certain kind of grieving what we have left behind, relationships that would never be quite the same again, familiar routines that worked so well and now our new home felt so strange and awkward.

BUT GOD.  He has been faithful.  He has gone before us.  He has come close, taken us by the hand and walked us through each transition.  He has taken our “impossibles” and shown us exactly what He can do – immeasurably, abundantly, above all that we could imagine.

As we look back over the years of simply following without fully knowing, we see God’s hand moving and working IN us and THROUGH us.  And through it all, He knows it has been the exact path that would lead each of us to HIM.  He knew we would need Him so desperately, that we would reach for Him, that we would find Him… and find Him faithful!

I count all things as loss compared to the surpassing excellence of knowing CHRIST JESUS my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, that I may gain CHRIST.  Philippians 3:8

Abraham went out without the assurance of anything – EXCEPT that God would go with him!  He makes the way.  He goes before us.  We follow.  We may be called to experience painful losses along the way, but nothing – NOTHING – we ever surrender to the Lord in obedience will compare with all He has planned to give us and reveal to us as we stay close by His side.  Those glimpses of an eternal inheritance are ones we don’t want to miss by stubbornly digging in our heels to stay where it’s comfortable!

Abraham confidently looked forward to a city with eternal foundations, whose builder and maker is God.  Hebrews 11:10

 Read more here!  – Isaiah 43:19 – Deuteronomy 31:8 – John 8:12 – John 10:4 – Philippians 3:8