Abraham's Four Surrenders
A great many people are afraid of the will of God, and yet I believe
that one of the sweetest lessons that we can learn in the school of
Christ is the surrender of our wills to God, letting Him plan for us
and rule our lives. If I know my own mind, if an angel should come
from the throne of God and tell me that I could have my will done
the rest of my days on earth, and that everything I wished should be
carried out, o
that I might refer it back to God, and let God's
will be done in me and through me, I think in an instant I would
say:
"Let the will of God be done."
I cannot look into the future. I do not know what is going to happen
to-morrow; in fact, I do not know what may happen before night; so I
cannot choose for myself as well as God can choose for me, and it is
much better to surrender my will to God's will. Abraham found this
out, and I want to call your attention to four surrenders that he
was called to make. I think that they give us a pretty good key to
his life.
I
In the first place, Abraham was called to give up his kindred and
his native country, and to go out, not knowing whither he went.
While men were busy building up Babylon, God called this man out of
that nation of the Chaldeans. He lived down near the mouth of the
Euphrates, perhaps three hundred miles south of Babylon, when he was
called to go into a land that he perhaps had never heard of before,
and to possess that land.
In the twelfth chapter of Genesis, the first four verses, we read:
"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." Now notice the promise: "And I will make of thee a
great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and
thou shalt be a blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee, and
curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the
earth be blessed. So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto
him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy five years old and
when he departed out of Haran."
It was several years before this that God first told him to leave Ur
of the Chaldees. Then he came to Haran, which is about half-way
between the valley of the Euphrates and the valley of the Jordan.
God had called him into the land of the Canaanite, and