Day 4 -- Genesis 12-16

You never hear God say "please." When the Lord called Abram, he just says, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land I will show you. 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" (12:1-2).
It is both a command of obedience and the promise of a new life.
We don't know exactly how God spoke to Abram to give him that promise--"I will make your name Great"--we can assume it was as an inner voice. But however the call came, Abram recognized the voice as God's, and obeyed the call--"So Abram went, as the Lord had told him" (12:4).
He might not have gone, of course, but he did, and his obedience opened for him and for his wife Sarai--Mr. and Mrs. Great--a new life.
Were Mr. and Mrs Great worthy of the new life God offered them? They were certainly not perfect--not by any means. In Egypt, we are told that Abram prostituted his wife to Pharoah (12:10-17) to save himself. Abram certainly followed the cultural imperative of his time and spread his seed as widely as possible. When she herself could not conceive, Sarai offered him her maid, Hagar, as a concubine. Abram did not hesitate. Then when Hagar became pregnant, Sarai acted like a real bitch--sorry, but there is no other English word that quite captures the meaning here. She ran Hagar off into the desert to die. And Abram let her. Mr. and Mrs. Great could be a lot less than good.
Called to the new life, Abram and Sarai brought along with them all their old baggage. So were they worthy of their calling? Well, it really isn't a fair question for us to ask. We aren't worthy either, but God is always offering us a new life nevertheless.
Even in our sinfulness, faith opens the door to live that new life. Faith is trust in God's promises. It is a willingness to hope for what seems impossible, and to go on trying when common sense says--Give up. Faith is a willingness to conceive the inconceivable.
That's what it takes to live the new life--not conventional goodness. And that's what Mr. and Mrs. Great had--and that's what made them great--faith--not moral goodness.
Chapter 15, verse 6 tells us that Abram--despite all evidence to the contrary--"believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to them as righteousness" (15:6).
Righteousness is that willingness to trust God and go on "by stages" (12:9) to live our lives in trust the way Abram and Sarai did. And to those that the Lord reckons as righteous the he offers what he gave Abram and Sarai--a new life of fruitfulness, of adventure, and, at the end, of peace (15:15). And what more could anyone ask.

Willian Sloan Coffin said-- "Old age is dying young as late as possible."