Would you be willing to let someone who is at odds with you make a decision FOR YOU that determined the direction for the rest of your life?  Let me ask that another way… Would WE trust GOD enough to allow a person who has problems with us to make a decision that determined the direction for the rest of our lives?  Consider the following…

Genesis 13:7 There was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were dwelling in the land. 8 Then Abram said to Lot, “Let there be no strife between you and me, and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, for we are kinsmen. 9 Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself from me. If you take the left hand, then I will go to the right, or if you take the right hand, then I will go to the left.”

This is so contrary to accepted practices of the day we can’t fathom it!  In those days chronological family age was everything.  It was unthinkable… beyond unthinkable… for an elder in the family to allow someone younger to make such a momentous decision.  But that is what Abram did!  He let LOT make a decision that would determine the direction of the rest of his life.

As anyone would do… Lot chose what he thought would be best for him…  (Gen 13:10) “And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, in the direction of Zoar.”  Lot picked THE prime real estate of his day.  Thus he “shafted” his own kinsfolk… Abram and his family.  He probably figured this decision would set him and his family up for centuries to come.  But he was wrong…

Here’s the rest of Gen 3:10… “The Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, in the direction of Zoar. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.)  13 Now the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord.”  Lot’s decision (Made without consulting God) was a bad one for him.  HOWEVER…

Because Abram trusted God completely he could… without worry… allow a life changing decision to be outside his control BECAUSE it was in and under the loving, gracious, and providential hand of God.  Thus we read further from Genesis 13:14-18…

The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, 15 for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. 16 I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. 17 Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.”

About this land we read later in Exodus 13:5 what it was like… as promised to Abram…

And when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which he swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey…

How much do WE trust God for the events and decisions of our life?  Maybe, just maybe, God really is in control and DOES will good to His own!