Focus

Experience silence in the midst of your busy day. Take some time to relax into a time to be with God.

Read

Genesis 12:1-4a (NRSV)

Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him.

Reflect

My wife, Robin, is the president of the Murfreesboro Region Cumberland Presbyterian Women’s Ministry (CPWM). However, I’ve learned that there is also a special role for the regional president’s husband—to help out with meetings, events, retreats, conventions, or any other mission service the ladies are planning. I enjoy it, and I am proud to stand by my wife in her ministry as she stands by me in my mine.

The CPWM Convention and General Assembly theme for this year is “GO,” based upon Hebrews 13:13. The message sounds simple enough, but it is often hard to practice. It is hard to step out in pure obedience into the unknown. We are afraid of what we cannot see. In a world where “seeing is believing,” God asks us to live where “believing is seeing.” As we read Abram’s story, I think of the speakers the Murfreesboro Region CPWM has heard over the last two years: John Park, who heard God’s call and went to the Philippines; Jacob and Lindsey Sims, who have heard and followed God’s call to leave their country, their kindred, and go to Brazil; Micaiah Tanck, who responded to God’s call by going on various mission trips; Patrick and Jessica Wilkerson, who also will leave their country to go to Colombia, South America. Like Abram, these people have been called to step out and see what the Lord has in store for them.

Not everyone is called to be an overseas missionary, but we are all called to “go” when God calls us. God’s message to us might be, “Go from your couch or recliner, from sitting in front of your computer screen or TV, from spending hours upon hours on Facebook, from others who may not hold your best interests at heart, from your comfort zone to the place that I will show you.” God calls us to go where God send us, be it overseas or to our places of work, our friends, our communities, or maybe to our next door neighbors. The question isn’t where are you going, it is are you willing, like Abram, to go when God calls, to see how God blesses you to be a blessing to others? Just how much of a blessing can you be to someone today?

Pray

God, you still call your people to “go.” Help us to hear you when you call. Give us the faith we need to step out in obedience to go where you lead and call us to go. As you have blessed us, let us also be a blessing to others whom you place in our paths each day. Amen.

Go with God.