In Genesis 12:1 God told Abraham, “Go away from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you” (AMP). What God was asking him was more than to leave his home. God was also asking him to walk away from his inheritance. In that time period, your inheritance was everything. It was your security for your future. Abraham left on a promise with trust in God. When the Lord had brought him to the place He was leading him, He said, “I am the [same] Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land as an inheritance.” God not only promised to give him descendants, He also gave him a greater inheritance than had he stayed at home.
In Matthew 19 a young man approached Jesus asking what he needed to do to inherit eternal life. Jesus told him to obey the commandments. He told Jesus that he had done that his whole life. Then Jesus said, “If you wish to be perfect [that is, have the spiritual maturity that accompanies godly character with no moral or ethical deficiencies], go and sell what you have and give [the money] to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me [becoming My disciple, believing and trusting in Me and walking the same path of life that I walk].” The next verse said he walked away sad and distressed. He wasn’t willing to let go of his earthly security the way Abraham was. He failed to receive the inheritance God offered him because he couldn’t let go and follow where Jesus would lead him.
Philippians 4:19 reminds us, “And my God will liberally supply (fill until full) your every need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” What has God been asking you to walk away from or to let go of? Are you holding on tightly like the rich, young ruler? Or are you willing to walk into the unknown like Abraham? God is our source. He is the one who will supply all of our needs. Sometimes we will receive our inheritance from Him in this life, and other times we will receive it in eternity. God calls us to walk by faith and not by sight. When we cling to earthly security after He’s asked us to let go, we’re showing we believe we are our source and not Him. God is always willing to trade inheritances where we give up to temporal for the eternal.
Photo by Zoshua Colah on Unsplash
Devotions by Chris Hendrix 