Break Away!

“Now the Lord had said unto Abram,

Get thee out of thy country,

and from thy kindred and from thy father’s house,

unto a land that I will shew thee”

--Genesis 12:1

Katrina knew she was in an unhealthy relationship; it swayed her from everything she knew to be right: she found herself in his bed more times than her own and her lies were more prevalent than the truth. Morris knew the job was overtaking his life; it kept him from everything that was important to him: he barely made it to church and was constantly irritated by his family and those around him. Corrine knew she needed to change friends; but she kept hanging out till the wee hours of the morning partying and drinking: her own son barely knew who she was. Patrick knew his depression was overtaking his life; there were days that he couldn’t even move: he lost his job as a result and was getting ready to lose his wife.

Perhaps we know someone like the individuals described above or maybe we ourselves are these individuals and we need to “break away.” But from what? What is it that we need to break away from? Well we need to break away from anything that or anyone who hinders us from going to the places God has destined us to go to in this life. In other words God may very well want us to break away from family, friends, jobs, associations, affiliations, or activities that do not help us to achieve our purpose. But how? How do we leave kindred, our father’s house, the people we are familiar with, the places we are comfortable with, and the things we are used to doing to venture somewhere we’ve never been or to do something we’ve never done?

Good question, it’s probably the same question Abram had when God told him to leave all that he had known for so long and move to another country. If we read further in the text we will find that God wanted Abram to move not so he could experience more turmoil and more frustration, but so that He could bless him. So we have to ask ourselves, “what things are we tied to that are causing us to forfeit our blessing?” See God did not want Abram to be tied to a land with false gods and idols, He wanted to remove him from that place so that he could focus solely on the One, True, and Living God. Abram had to leave a physical country, but what place are we in today that God wants us to leave? Is it a place in our minds like lust, greed, or envy or maybe a place in our routine like who we choose to hang with or the places we choose to spend time at?

In that respect, we too are like Abram in that we get accustomed to living a certain way, not realizing that the way we are living is not how God designed us to live. God made us to give Him glory, but we cannot do that if we are so wrapped up into ourselves and our lives that we cannot see God anywhere or in anything. See when God is at the forefront of our minds, depression cannot set in, priorities cannot get mixed up, purpose cannot be thwarted, family cannot be destroyed, and sin cannot overtake us; but when our focus is not Christ, we can quickly be consumed and find ourselves in a place where we are wandering and lost.

Today God wants us to break away from anyone and anything that will hinder our walk with Him so that we can clearly see Him and go where He’s leading us so that we may be blessed.