Friday, blessed Friday

Another early day, errands to run and a day at work in the retail world for me. It was good, most Fridays are and I can't recall many bad Fridays in my life so far. I was reading in my quiet time this evening about Abram, who God later named Abraham. God called him to leave everyone and everything he knew and go to the land He would show him. Hmmm...not such an easy thing for many of us. Leave what you know, go where I lead you. God didn't give Abraham an itinerary, an agenda or a planner of any kind--He just said, "Go and I will show it to you." I love this story, reading about how God will bless him and his family, for many, many generations. Abraham left us an incredible legacy, a hard act to follow. How would any one of us feel about giving up all we know, particularly our comforts and our comfort zone in which we live to simply follow where God leads? I can think of several times in my life when Ryan and I faced criticism and skepticism about a decision we had made to follow God's call in a new direction. I have no doubt that will continue, and I am actually thankful for it. It is essentially a form of accountability for us. None of us is perfect, and more often than not we will anger, frustrate, disappoint, and hurt one another more often than we'd like to admit. The icing on the cake is we have learned something from each and every one of those experiences. Even when Abraham followed God, he had moments along the way where he made a decision that had a rather upsetting result. I am thankful that no matter what happens along this journey, my mistakes contain lessons which will strengthen me for the next season. I loved reading in Matthew 5:1-26 about the blessings that will come to those who are God's, who truly follow Him. It is good to be a child of God.
Matthew 5:3 "God blesses those who realize their need for Him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is given to them."