The third reason we go through seasons of change is because God wants to bring us into his blessing and inheritance. Abram is our greatest example of this in scripture.
The Lord would command a move to initiate change in Abram’s life. Genesis 12:1-3 says, “The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. (2) “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. (3) I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
For Abram to receive his blessing, he had to be willing to leave everything that had been familiar to him. Not only would he have to leave his natural family and his closest relationships, but he would also have to leave his country. Abraham’s faith, his ability to be sure of what he hoped for and certain of what he did not yet see, allowed him to make such a move.
In Hebrews 11: we get incredible insight into what Abraham was thinking as he left all that was familiar and comfortable to him. It says, “(8) By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went , even though he did not know where he was going. (9) By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. (10) For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”
God changed Abram to bring him into a relationship with him, establish a people he could bring his blessing to and through, and give Abram a great inheritance of land and people. One of the prayers Apostle Paul prayed for the church at Ephesus is that the eyes of their heart would be enlightened so they would know the riches of the glorious inheritance in the saints (Ephesians 1:18). God’s ultimate blessing and inheritance for our lives is the relationships we develop in him.
What is amazing about this story is that Abram, which means father is exalted, was childless and well past the age of childbearing at the time God visited him. God told him that if he would obey him, not only would he give him a son, but he would give Abram descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore (Hebrews 11:12).
As proof of his promise to Abram, God gave him two external signs of the covenant he made with him. One sign was circumcision, and the other was a name change. God changed Abram’s name to Abraham, which means “father of many nations.” Abraham embraced his season of change and became the patriarch of God’s purpose, and the father of our faith.
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