In Genesis Chapter 1:1-3 God said, “Go – get up out of your country and when you do, I will make you a great nation, I will bless those that bless you and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed”.
Have you ever thought about ‘what if’? What if Abraham hadn’t gone? What would have happened?
A lot of people came from the lineage of Abraham – Moses, King David, even Jesus Christ. If Abraham hadn’t obeyed Gods command would any of those people even exist?
Maybe they would have but we can’t be certain. Everyone knows the basics of science. It takes a certain egg and a certain sperm to make a certain child. Have you ever thought about your own creation? I have. At one point my mother was married to a man and after seven years together they still didn’t have children. My mother then had an affair with an older man who was married to someone else and she conceived within a few “dates”. Mothers husband went on to have children with his new wife after they separated and she also went on to have two more of her own. Why didn’t they have children together? Why did it take my married biological father and my married mother to conceive me? Because it was the correct egg and sperm for my spirit to inhabit my body.
After my biological father abandoned my mother, she married another man. He was a very angry and abusive person. He tried to bury his hurt and pain by horribly mistreating my mother and drinking hard liquor. He wasn’t the type of person that would ever admit that he needed anyone or anything, and unfortunately that man became known to me as my dad. He raised me from the time I was two years of age until I got married the first time at 18.
In my early 20’s I became a Christian and one of the first things I started doing was praying for my family to commit their lives to Christ. I knew my dad was hard-hearted and only wanted religion on his terms; he certainly had no idea what a relationship with Jesus Christ would look like. I was the Christian anchor holding my family in place.
One day after being a Christian for a few years, I had had enough of the lifestyle. At that time, my life was taking a turn for the worse. I started thinking, ‘if life is this hard being a Christian it couldn’t be much harder not being one. Maybe walking away from God would give me some peace’. Then I heard God in my heart, “what about your dad? If you stop serving God, who is going to be the one that will pray for him to become a Christian?” I stopped dead in my tracks. I thought about ‘what if’. What if I stop serving God and then everyone in this family is truly lost? It’s one thing for me to think about going to hell myself, but it’s quite another to take a whole group of people with me.
Needless to say, I didn’t quit serving God and almost 40 years later I’m more passionate about my walk with Christ than ever. It took 20 years of praying for my dad and hearing that voice say “your dad will go to Heaven, but it will be a deathbed experience.” He was eventually diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver and at the end of his journey he did commit his life to Christ. What if I had walked away from serving God back in my earlier days of struggle and doubt? I totally shudder to think about where I would be personally, but also where my family would have ended up. My mother has also passed away and just like my dad, she became a Christian at the end of her life. My brother accepted Christ too, and I’m still actively praying for my sister and her family.
Sometimes we are asked to do things that we just don’t want to do. We may be called into a ministry that is similar to someone who is already successful. What they’re doing seems so glamorous compared to what you have been asked to do. They have arrived, they are already living the life that you believe you are called to live… So how did they get there and you are just swimming circles? I watch the women ministers that have made it really big and are doing well with their ministries and I get frustrated sometimes, because I don’t want to do the work they did to get there. I often believe God blessed them because they must be doing something right and in turn, I must be doing something wrong. But that’s not it at all… It’s work. No matter how you slice it – it’s work. It may seem glamorous when they are talking about the places they travel to, their great incomes, nice clothes and money to live a good life, but what if they hadn’t obeyed God? What if they hadn’t done as He told them to do? Many of us would have missed out on tremendous teaching, preaching and life changing experiences if we didn’t follow the gentle calling of God on our hearts.
I could sit and list all the things that could have happened if I hadn’t obeyed. My ‘What If’ list would be long and decidedly dark. I’m currently at another ‘what if’ fork in the road – I’m called to be a Writer/Author/International Seminar Speaker with some preaching sprinkled in here and there. But, there’s a price to be paid… I work a full-time day job. I go to work at approximately 7:30AM every day, I get one hour for lunch, and then I’m home at 5:30PM – 5 days a week. I also work some on Saturdays to make some extra money for the household, because our income is limited and the extra Saturday money comes in handy.
I’m tired when I come home and I virtually have no days off. When I don’t work at my day job on Saturday, I am buying groceries and trying to have quality time with my husband. On Sunday we go to our Sunday morning church service and then work another service thereafter. I don’t know about you, but I’m an introvert. I can be an extrovert to the point that people really think that’s my true self, however, I have to have time for myself to regroup and recharge. If I haven’t recharged, I’m cross and grumpy and not very good company for anyone. This life situation gives me a whole lot of excuses as to why I can’t do what God has asked me to do.
The fact that God hasn’t supernaturally changed our financial situation doesn’t allow me to use these excuses. I’ve skirted what I’ve been called to do for too many years. As I continue aging, it’s finally down to the wire.
What about you? What are you going to do with your ‘what if’ moment? You can’t say you don’t have one, because we all do. We all have those moments that we feel a stirring in our heart, but we’re just not sure if we want to follow that command or not. Don’t let your ‘what if’ moment cause you to lose what is possibly the best thing you will ever receive. I’m glad I didn’t give up when faced with mine!
Bridget Johnson is a Writer/Author/International Seminar Speaker and is a Platinum Ezine Author. Bridget lives in Oklahoma with her husband, Peter. Find her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/bridgetsauthorpage/?modal=admin_todo_tour
