What is the formula for accomplishing something great? First, we must start. I know it sounds like a truism or oversimplification, but you would be amazed at how many people with brilliant plans fail because they never take the first step.
The first step from Ur toward Canaan was not taken by Abram, but by his father Terah. We all know Abraham, but his father’s obedience put him in position to obey. Terah initiated the move which God had orchestrated. He not only got up and went, but he took his family with him. Abram, Sarai, and Haran’s son Lot went out from Ur and headed to Canaan. They arrived in the promised land. But Terah did not. Why not? Harran happened.
Along the way to God’s destination, the Terah family stopped in Harran. Apparently, Terah liked it there. So they all stayed. They made themselves at home in a new place, but not in the place God had prepared for them. Why did they stop? It wasn’t because they ran out of time. Terah lived 205 years. He died where he stopped. In Harran.
Anybody else still in Harran? You started to obey but stopped at a nice roadside park along the way to God’s will. Starting well does not guarantee a strong finish. In the park I see runners wearing marathon shirts with one word on them: “Finisher.” I have never seen a marathoner wearing a shirt which read, “Starter.” Paul told the Philippians that God who had begun a good work in them would carry it on to completion.
I have heard a line in a few newer worship songs proclaiming, “If it’s not good, God is not done.” We never want to stop before God does. Partial obedience amounts to disobedience. As ancestors “beget” descendants, so one act of obedience begets another. Obey God in the small things today, trusting him to lead you to greater opportunities for obedience.
