PRAYER OF CONSECRATION
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.
Jesus, we belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
Genesis 12:1–2
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 you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.”
CONSIDER THIS
Before I became a Christian, it seemed that most people who talked about “following God” described some sort of blind faith. Like using a divining rod or rolling the dice to see how far they should move, following the Christian faith seemed disconcerting. Does your faith feel blind sometimes? We are about halfway through this Lenten season, intentionally creating space to encounter the triune God and voluntarily surrendering our lives as an offering to the Lord. Are you experiencing a shift or transformation in your spiritual life? I pray that you are because as you put these steps into practice you will better understand that following Jesus is not blind. As we learn to listen to the Holy Spirit, it is easier to follow God’s direction and as we read today, following God leads to blessings.
In a pivotal moment of Abram’s (soon to be Abraham’s) life, he hears the Lord tell him to go to a new place so He can bless him—in that call, the Lord is asking him to trust God with his future. Why didn’t the Lord just bless Abram where he was? Why did Abram have to pick up his household and move to another location? The truth is sometimes we need a physical shift to experience a spiritual shift. We have to let go of our lives to receive a blessing from the Lord.
In reality, God could have blessed Abram in any location and in any circumstances, but God wanted Abram to be the vessel through which He would bless the world and that would require trust. God didn’t need his possessions or even his location. God needed his obedience. In the ancient world, your land was your inheritance to pass on to your children and to provide and protect your household. Abram’s call to obedience meant that he had to put everything into God’s hands and trust Him with his future. He would hold nothing back. In fact, if you continue in chapter 12, you see that he took everything, “He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran” (v. 5). He didn’t leave some clothes in the closet just in case or put his house up for rent so he would have a place to return to if God’s plan didn’t work out. As a sign of trust, Abram left what was comfortable and what was known, to go where God directed.
The disciples were given a similar directive when Jesus said, “Follow me.” They had to lay down any worry they had about their new profession, how they would provide for themselves and their families, and where they were going. Following your faith in Jesus can bring you to a crossroads in your life. Will you stay in the place where you know everything and everyone or will you go to a new place? Are you willing to physically shift to experience a spiritual shift? While it may seem that the first step of Abram’s surrender started with his feet, it actually began with his relationship with God. Did he trust in the voice of the Lord? Did he trust in the plans the Lord had for him? The answer is yes and so can we!
THE PRAYER
Lord, we may not know what the future holds, but You do. We trust You with our days and we will go where You tell us to go without reservation. Amen.
THE QUESTIONS
When have you felt God direct you to make a change in your life? Did you struggle with any doubt or were you confident in the change? How does your relationship with Jesus help you when you find yourself at a crossroads?
For the Awakening,
Susan Kent
Subscribe to get this in your inbox daily and please share this link with friends.
4 Responses
It is a simple prayer but don’t pray it unless you really mean it. “…we will go where You tell us to go without reservation.” When we left the USA for a land across the sea 6 years ago, we sold it all (house, stuff, car….) and boarded a plane with 2 bags. Many (and I do mean many), life long believers who love Jesus passionately told us that they could never do that. They were too attached to the life they have, too attached to their children and grandchildren (is that idolatry?), and to afraid. God has been faithful to us and we don’t regret what we did for a moment. But don’t pray this unless you mean it.
I believe that the central truth this post is conveying is that in this journey of faith, our faith and trust in God’s providence will be tested. This test is not for God’s sake, He already knows the results before we begin. It’s for our sake, so that any weakness in our faith can be revealed and properly dealt with through prayer and repentance. And yes, I was once tested to reveal whether I was willing to step outside my own comfort zone of traditional church attendance in order to reach some of the meany “church refugees “ out there, to facilitate their reconnection with the fellowship of other believers. I’m still involved with a couple of those types of ministries, and have been blessed because of it. Faithful ness to God’s calling will always bring about His blessings.
Open the Blinds To Let God’s Light In
To truly grow
Let God show
You where to go.
Learn to flow
With His Spirit.
Read His word
And hear it
With your heart.
Step beyond
What you know.
So God can sow
His seeds in you.
Faith isn’t blind we are.
Faith is trusting without knowing.
Don’t we enter each day without knowing what’s in store? Yet, we trust ourselves we’ll make it through.
We think we have our lives under control until it unravels.
We seek guidance from professionals when our computers and cars break down.
Why? Because we have faith and trust they know how to fix them.
Yet, when our lives fall apart, we try to fix ourselves through the world instead of the Creator of the world.
When life becomes unmanageable, doesn’t seeking help from the Creator of Life make sense?
When we put our trust, faith, and life in Christ, what was once broken becomes new.
Including me and you!
Revelation 21:5
And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
Staying 💪’ n Christ
Ephesians 6:10
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.