By Robert Wilkerson
“Abraham…obeyed and went even though he did not know where he was going” Hebrews 11:8.
The New Year is here. Most people take the entrance into a New Year seriously. They know the passing of years signals the passing of life. If we read newspapers or magazines, we’re encouraged to set goals, lose weight, and exercise, all of which are good, but not necessarily best. As we enter the New Year, to tell the truth, none of us knows exactly what it will bring, but we can be encouraged by the example of Abraham.
Abraham came home one day and told his wife, “Honey, we’re moving.” She must have gasped, and asked, “When did you decide that?” He replied, “When God told me to.” He went on and told her to get the family together, pack everything we have and everything we can carry, and tell the kids to pack all their belongings. Tell the servants to get ready to move all the animals. We’re moving.” Mrs. Abraham must have asked, “Why are we moving?” Abraham could only answer, “Because God has told me to.” The next question out of her mouth must have been, “Where are we moving to?” Abraham could only answer, “I don’t know; God didn’t tell me where we’re moving to. He just told me to get my family together and leave, and that’s what we’re going to do.”
Abraham made a great decision of faith. Because he made that decision and he was willing to leave his homeland, his relatives, and his neighbors, and go where God would show him, God blessed him greatly. We may not be like Abraham. We may not have felt called, but we too have gone out. The New Year has started and we have embarked on the year 2013. To tell the truth, we don’t know what the future will hold. We hope that it will hold great success, good health for us and our families, but it may hold the opposite of those things.
It may be a year of hardship, of sickness, or even death. We don’t know, but we don’t have a choice. We’re in this year and we’re passing through it. Abraham didn’t know where he was going and he didn’t know what the future held, but he did know who held the future
. God blessed Abraham and made him the father of the Jewish nation. He had the courage to go, because he knew two things. He knew that God is a good and loving God, and he knew that wherever he went, it would be all right if God went with him. That same thing holds true today. We know who holds the future and we know anywhere we go will be all right if it is where God wants us. We need to recall the words of an old hymn that says,
“Wherever He leads me I’ll go, anywhere;
No matter to me where ‘ere it be, if He is there.
I count it a privilege here, my cross to bear.”
Is that your belief as we have entered the New Year?
Dr. Robert Wilkerson is a minister and author of Characters of the Crucifixion and Lost America. He founded People For the Christian Way, a nonprofit organization. With devotionals, books, speaking engagements and media venues, he advocates the use of Christian principles and ethics in government, business and in all areas of life.