Abraham truly did live a life of worship. Looking through the book of Genesis, it amazes me what Abraham does in the name of the Lord. Equally amazing is the amount of time he spends worshipping Him.
Abraham, (formerly known as Abram, which, incidently, means exalted father, an ironic name given the fact that his wife could not have children and as such he had not fathered any children) was marriedto Sarai and at the beggining of the story they are living in Haran, which is North of the River Euphrates and North East of the Mediterranean Sea.
At the very start of Genesis Chapter 12, the Lord says to Abram: "“Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.”
At the time, Abram was 75 years old, and although in those days people lived for a fairly long time, (his father, Terah, was 205 when he died) he was no spring chicken!
In this situation I am fairly certain what my immediate response would be. I'd probably say something like:
"But Lord, I'm 75, I'm settled, my wife and I are happy here, we have a living, we have a house with a garden and a great view. I'm glad you want to bless me, but to be honest, I'm not too bothered about everyone else being blessed through me. I'd rather just stay here. Thanks for the offer though, I'm sure you'll find someone much better than me to carry out your plan for you!"
As I said, that would be my immediate response, although I'd like to think that that is not quite what I'd actually say!
Thankfully, Abram doesn't say no, instead he upped sticks with his wife, his nephew Lot and his servants, taking all his wealth with him and headed for Canaan, the land the Lord had promised him. The story then describes how Abraham basically carries out his journey breaking it up with pit stops simply to worship the Lord. Gen 12 v 7 says, after Abram has arrived at Shechem, which is currently inhabited by Caananites, "... The Lord said: “I will give this land to your descendants.” And Abram built an altar there and dedicated it to the Lord..."
So he stopped in the middle of land inhabited by foreigners and stopped to worship the Lord, praising him for his promise.
Gen 12 v 8 shows Abram a little further along his journey, to the South of verse 7 having set up camp in the hill country. "There he built an altar and dedicated it to the Lord, and he worshiped the Lord".
Abram could not survive spiritually without regularly renewing his love and loyalty to God. Gen 12 v 9 says simply that Abram continued traveling south by stages towards the Negev.
One can only assume, in light of the previous two verses that at the end of each stage, and probably along the way, he was worshipping the Lord.
The question is now is this: In light of Abram's example, how often are we stopping to worship the Lord? Do we only stop on Sunday mornings and forget about Him for the rest of the week? Or are we genuinely worshiping Him throughout each day, stopping to thank Him for the little things as well as the big things? As we'll find out next time, Abram never stopped worshiping the Lord, no matter how hard the trials that came his way. He lived a life holy (sic) dedicated to God.
There is no greater challenge.
There is no greater joy.
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