Abandon

Abandonment; Webster says it means to give up to the control or influence of another person or agent. We all have seen abandoned cars, houses and even in some cases abandoned men and women. As I read Genesis chapter 12 and verse 1 I noticed some things about abandonment.

Genesis 12:1  Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:

God is talking to Abram and he is asking him to abandon some things. God first asked Abram to abandon his reputation by saying unto him “Get thee out of thy country, “ Abram was well known in his country he had spent 75 years of his life there but if he was going to follow God he would have to abandon his security and surroundings. Then God asked him to abandon something else and that was his relationships (and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house) this was hard for him to do. That is one of the first things I tell those who come to me fighting an addiction. I tell them to abandon their friends and change their phone number. Why do I ask them to do that? They need to break the ties of temptation from their friends for they will pull them back down. God tells Abram to abandon his family and friends so that he will learn to totally depend on God and not the advice of his friends and family. That wasn’t all God asked him to abandon; God now ask him to abandon himself to reason (unto a land that I will shew thee:)  it is said like this in

Hebrews 11:8  By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.

Get the picture, Abram at the age of 75 is asked to pack up and abandon everything. When asked by his friends where are you going? Abram would answer I’m not quite sure. I am going to a land where I’ve never been. What are you going to do when you get there? He would answer be the father of a great nation. And we think we have it rough; all we have to do is get up in the morning and go to the same place we have been going for years; and we complain! It was 1968 when I found myself at O’Hare airport on my way to my first place of duty; Duluth, Minnesota. I had just gotten off one airplane and was to board another; but where? I had no idea you see this was the second time in my life I had ever been in an airport; the first was 2 hours ago when I was helped to a boarding gate. Now here I was in a strange land with no help. I had to abandon my pride if I was to catch the next plane; I did but this was not all the abandoning I would be doing before this day was done. You see sometimes if we are going to get to a certain place we must learn to abandon some things and the first thing that is to be abandoned is our pride; that hurts! If we are going to follow God there will be some abandoning going on in our lives just as it was in Abram's life. My prayer is that you don’t wait until you’re 75 before you do so.