The depth of God’s call on your life determines your commitment to resolving conflict. When we are given to greater things, it enables us to deal with lesser things. Abraham’s call is what motivated him. The Bible says in Genesis 12:1-4,
Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.
When I heard one of my spiritual fathers, Dr. Frank Sells, read this passage, he asked this question, “Do you expect God to make you a worldwide blessing?” Though Abram is considered a great man, we are not talking about a great man. We are talking about a great God. God said, “In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” This is an amazing statement. One man was called, and God said, “Through you I am going to bless all the families of the earth.” Do you expect God to make you a worldwide blessing?
The Lord Jesus Christ said to us, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” He said to us, “Go ye therefore and teach all nations…” Do you believe that every Christian can be a worldwide blessing? Do you know something that is going to stop that from happening? Strife between brethren will stop it from happening. With the visibility many have gained, they have the possibility of more conflict. Of course, we are to earnestly contend for the faith, but there exists so much unnecessary division among brethren.
Cats are amazing creatures. Someone said, “Cats are little women in fur coats.” When they are playful, they are always throwing a paw out trying to get you engaged. They are trying to get you involved. If you walk near them, they are apt to throw a paw out to try to get you to respond to them.
While we are walking through this world, there are people who are like those cats. They want to engage you in something. The world, the flesh, and the Devil want you to devote energy and time to that which is not the will of God. They want you to get sidetracked and enter into someone’s strife. But you and I must be so captured by the call of God that we say, “We will not engage in that because God has given us something greater to do.” We have a consuming call on our lives. Let us declare as Nehemiah did to his distractors, “I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?” (Nehemiah 6:3)
Abram did not have all the answers. He did not even know where he was going. He just followed the Lord. As he followed the Lord, the day came when this conflict arose. The herdsmen were in strife. Abram knew about the call of God on his life and the promise that God had made to him to make him a worldwide blessing. He thought, “We cannot allow this to keep God’s work from going forward. Whatever it takes, we are going to resolve this conflict.”
It is no surprise that the Lord referred to Abram as the “ friend of God” (II Chronicles 20:7; Isaiah 41:8; James 2:23). Abram’s walk with God enabled him to deal properly with this crisis. Abram, “the Friend of God,” serves as an example to all the true followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I know Christians who would rather prove that they are right than make peace and resolve strife. That is not the way Christian people should behave. We must take our strong stand, but we can do it with mercy and grace in Christ-likeness.
Abram had God’s call on His life. Do you have His call on your life? As a believer, you certainly do. I am called to be with the Lord Jesus Christ; to be a true follower of Jesus Christ. In doing so, God has called me to a worldwide ministry. It is His ministry in this world.
Abram knew that God’s great call was on his life, and he recognized how Satan could use that strife to defeat what God wanted him to do with his life. May the Lord make us discerning and loving enough to say, “It is going to stop. We are not going to lose God’s worldwide blessing over some matter that amounts to nothing in eternity.”