Partial or Complete Obedience?

Genesis 12 to 15 We do not know what lies ahead for 2022, but we can trust God that He is a promise keeper.  As we begin this year, we can take a page out of Abram’s life to learn what God says we are to do.

God told Abram to leave and go to a land He would show him, and Abram obeyed.  He “went forth as the Lord had spoken to him.” [Gen 12:4] Yet, Abram did not leave his relatives or his father’s household as God had said.  How often does God say leave, but we cling to what is familiar and comfortable?  That was Abram’s first test, and he failed, and that is us as well.  Next, God sent a very severe famine into the land.  Would Abram believe that if God gave him the land, He would also provide?  Instead of trusting God, Abram went down to Egypt, not to visit but to sojourn. Then, Abram lied about Sarai because he feared for his own life; “when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife’; and they will kill me, but they will let you live.” [Gen 12:12]. Truth: “the fear of people becomes a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord will be set on high.” [Prov 29:25]

Abram is a man called by God, and he obeyed partially.  Partial obedience is disobedience.  Like us, we fail to trust in the God of provision and protection when a test comes. This year, choose to fully believe that “what God had promised, He [is] able also to perform.” [Rom 4:21]