Follow God for another Promise

I keep referring to Great Lent as a journey. Every journey needs a destination. Traditionally we think of the destination of our Great Lenten Journey as Pascha. Our fasting leads to feasting. Our prayer leads to the Altar of God. Sometimes our idea of a destination isn’t a destination at all. Sometimes it is just getting us started.

Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.  And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse; and by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves.”  So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.  And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions which they had gathered, and the persons that they had gotten in Haran; and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan. When they had come to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.  Then the LORD appeared to Abram, and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him.

Genesis 12.1-7

When God sent Abram on a journey, the destination wasn’t a foreign country. The destination was God’s promise. Our Great Lenten destination isn’t Pascha. The destination is God’s promise. Abram didn’t witness God’s promise when he arrived in the new land.

The promise God made to Abram wasn’t realized for generations. It wasn’t until after Christ ascended to His Throne, and the Gentiles were welcomed into the Church that the promise was fulfilled by God. Abram chose to follow God and trusted the promise would come.

God has invited you to take a journey during Great Lent, and trust that He will make good on His promise. You may not ‘feel’ God’s promise but that can’t stop you from following Him. His promise for you is eternal life. You won’t ‘feel’ it right away, but it is there.

Hang in there. You’ve made it more than half-way to our destination. The destination is closer than the beginning. Take courage knowing that God has always honored the journey with His promise. You made it this far; you can make it the rest of the way.

It is what they call faith.