Go Forth

But Samuel replied, “What is more pleasing to the Lord: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams.” 1 Samuel 15:22 (nlt)

Our youngest daughter, Kelly, and her two sons were visiting from Texas. On Sunday morning we were getting ready for church. Jake, the older of the two boys, was the first to be dressed. He decided to go up to the game room and play while waiting on the rest of the family. With an old cell phone in one pocket and a wallet in the other, off he went, just as his daddy does each morning.

Once the rest of the family was ready, I went up to get Jake. As I rounded the corner his back was to me; he was talking as if the room were full of people. I hated to interrupt his play. As I called his name, he jumped. I frightened him, and oh, the look on his face! It was one of fear and great disappointment. I had interrupted his world of fun, a little world all his own.

He did not want to, but he would have to leave his cell phone, wallet, and the little world he had created behind. Has God ever called your name and said, “My child, you are going to have to leave this little world of yours and go with Me”? Perhaps you respond, “But, Father, do I have to? I don’t want to leave this little world of mine; it is comfortable, fun, and feels secure. Besides, Father, I am afraid, the place You are asking me to go I know nothing about.”

God sometimes interrupts our little worlds, asking us to leave behind the things we hold dear, to follow Him. We are reluctant, but just as I knew what was best for Jake, the Father knows what is best for us.

In Genesis, we see God issuing such a call: “Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go forth from your country.’ . . . So Abram went forth as the Lord had spoken to him” (Genesis 12:1,4, nasb). No excuses, no arguing, he just went! Did you realize he was leaving his homeland and all that was familiar to him to follow God? What an incredible act of faith and obedience. Abram’s faith and obedience pleased God.

Father, I do not want to hold onto my little world. Help me to let go when You call my name and respond in obedience to You, the One who knows what is best for me. Amen.