Devotional
Following God requires living by faith.
That means:
▪︎ trusting the Holy Spirit to guide us when we don´t see how all the pieces fit together (John 16:13);
▪︎ believing that God always works for our good and His glory (Rom. 8:28);
▪︎ and desiring to please our Father.
Genesis 12:1-9
¹Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; ²And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; ³And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
⁴So Abram went forth as the Lord had spoken to him; and Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. ⁵Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his nephew, and all their possessions which they had accumulated, and the persons which they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan; thus they came to the land of Canaan. ⁶Abram passed through the land as far as the site of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. Now the Canaanite was then in the land.
⁷The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him. ⁸Then he proceeded from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. ⁹Abram journeyed on, continuing toward the Negev.
Will you be ready when He calls?
Faith can be lulled to sleep when we are focused on our own comfort rather than God´s plan. Abraham did not fall into this trap. He traded the familiar for the unknown and received many blessings.
Living by faith is the right answer when God calls you to move forward. His call can come to us at any age and in any situation.
▪︎ Abraham was 75 when he began his journey.
▪︎ David was a shepherd boy when he was anointed to be king (1 Samuel 16:1-13).
▪︎ Paul encountered the Lord on his way to arrest Jewish believers in Damascus; after his conversion, he became the Lord´s representative to the Gentiles (Acts 9:1-6; Acts 22:21).
Our call may not be so dramatic, but it will always involve moving forward by faith.
Following God will also include times of testing.
Abraham, like all of us, had some successes and some failures.
The initial call to leave his country was met with strong belief and immediate action. As a result, the Lord promised a great blessing for him and his descendants.
But encountering a famine brought a different response from Abraham
▪︎ a sojourn to Egypt,
▪︎ deception about his relationship with Sarah,
▪︎ and chastisement from Pharaoh.
Our response to God´s commands really matters.
Through our actions, we can bring blessing or heartache.
Obeying the Lord can be uncomfortable.
Those close to us may question our motives or disagree with our decisions.
And we may not want to do what God asks.
But faith will keep us moving forward in obedience.
It helps us stay the course and experience the blessings found in a relationship with the Christ.
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