5. The Art of Letting Go and Embracing the Unfamiliar
The future is unfamiliar. To embrace the future is therefore to let go of the familiar and embrace the unfamiliar.
Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there.
Genesis 11:31 (NIV)
So Abram said to Lot, “Let’s not have any quarreling between you and me, or between your herdsmen and mine, for we are brothers. Is not the whole land before you? Let’s part company. If you go to the left, I’ll go to the right; if you go to the right, I’ll go to the left…So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out towards the east. The two men parted company.
Genesis 13:8-11 (NIV)
By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.”
Hebrews 11:17-18 (NIV)
What can we learn from the above mirrors?
1. Your progress in life is hinged on your ability to continuously step out from your place of comfort.
Abraham was comfortable in Ur before moving to Haran, en route to Canaan, with his father. He was then comfortable in Haran, before the LORD instructed him to continue his journey to Canaan. The fulfillment of the LORD’s promise ( Genesis 12:2-3) was hinged on Abraham’s decision to relocate to an unknown land.
2. There are certain people God places in your life for a time and a season. When that season is over, do not be afraid to let them go.
Terah planted the seed of Canaan in Abraham’s heart, but he did not have the ability to take him all the way to Canaan. Terah’s role was to uproot Abraham from Ur and take him as close to Canaan as he could. He fulfilled his purpose. It was only after his passing that the LORD enabled Abraham to settle in Canaan.
Lot had been a present figure in Abraham’s life. He had been with him in the various stages of his life from Ur to Haran and eventually in Canaan. But Abraham realized that he needed to distance himself from Lot if he was going to live the life God had promised him.
3. Make God the constant in your life, though it cost you everything.
The time came when Abraham was required to let go of the promise he had received, his son Isaac. He had given up the familiar for the promise, yet the promise was now required. What did he do? He let go of the promise and held on to his one constant-God. He knew that no promise, no person, no situation could ever take the position God held in his life. And as we are told, upon proving this, the LORD provided for Himself a sacrifice and spared Isaac ( Genesis 22:9-14).
4. The LORD directs you into the unfamiliar.
Every step Abraham took was as in obedience to the LORD’s instructions. And because of this, blessings always followed his obedience.
So Abram left as the LORD had told him;…The LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him.
Genesis 12:4-7( NIV)
The LORD said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, “Lift up your eyes from where you are and look north and south, east and west. All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring for ever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted. Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you.
Genesis 13:14-17(NIV)
The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, “I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.
Genesis 22:15-18( NIV)
Your Turn
What instruction(s) has the LORD placed in your heart? Know this, obedience is not easy. If anything obedience is very costly. It will cost you your time, money, friends, family and yes even that comfort zone you have worked so hard to build. But know this, the fulfillment of your purpose here on earth, the manifestation of the LORD’s promise(s) in your life is hinged on your willingness to obey him into the land He will show you, no matter how unfamiliar it may seem.
because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
Romans 8:14(NIV)
Son of God, allow Him to lead you into the unfamiliar, into the promise.