May 2

May 2.

The Lord had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father’s household-and go to the land I will show you." Genesis 12:1

All noble life begins with sacrifice. To gain the higher-the lower must be given up. We must leave our own country-before we can get into God’s country. We can have the better-only by giving up the less valuable. God calls us all to leave the old-in order to enter the new. It may not be literally to leave country, kindred, and home-and go out into a strange land; but in a spiritual sense it always is just this. If we would follow Christ-we must cut loose from the world, and go out with him.

Perhaps there is too great a tendency in these days-to try to follow Christ without cutting loose from the world. Too many people imagine that they can take the pilgrimage to Canaan-without leaving Ur! But this is quite impossible. We can get to our land of promise-only by leaving all, and following where Christ leads. This means that we must give up this world as our portion, and take the heavenly inheritance instead; we cannot keep both. The rich man who came to Christ could not sacrifice his earthly possessions, and therefore could not get the heavenly riches.