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January 7 - January 13, 2020
Scripture doesn’t presume to tell fairy tales. It’s a book about real life.
I admire people who are authentic and transparent, and I enjoy biographies that paint historical figures as they really were.
It tells us the unvarnished truth about its heroes, even when that truth proves to be uncomfortable or unappealing.
Elijah, whom the apostle James described as
“a man with a nature like ours” (James 5:17, NASB).
A good biography translates truth into life.
A good biography creates a closer kinship with people we have admired from a distance.
A good biography offers stability when we go through similar experiences.
A good biography helps us maintain a divine perspective on life.
So why Abraham? What does the life of an ancient nomad have to do with ours?
Nomad is a member of people with no fixed residence but moves from place to place
While each person’s faith journey is unique, Abraham blazed a trail for the rest of us; his faith journey tells us about our own.
God’s love for people is infinite. It is without boundaries. His love cannot be measured, because it has no end. He knows all about us, but He loves us still. Nothing He knows about us could make Him love us less, and no matter how great our devotion may grow, He cannot love us more. His love is not only infinite, it is also absolute.
God’s blessings upon us are astonishing. While He is just, He frequently offers mercy. He gives us more good things than we merit, and He shields us from many sorrows we deserve. The best word to describe His character, His values, and His methods is grace. Furthermore, His grace is unstoppable, even by our rebellious rejection of Him.
People were born with Adam’s rebellious nature, and within just a few generations, the entire human race became so incorrigibly corrupt that God wiped out all but a handful of lives—Noah and his family (see Genesis 6–9).
Upon his birth, he received a name that means “the father is exalted”—most
2). Even so, God appeared specifically to Abram and gave him personalized instructions: “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you” (Genesis 12:1).
We should also observe that Abram didn’t seek out God for a relationship; God approached him.
The Lord chose Abram for reasons known only in heaven. Abram did nothing to earn or deserve God’s favor.
“Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:1-3).
To receive the promised blessings, Abram had to leave behind everything he relied on for safety and provision—homeland and relatives—and trust that God would honor His commitment.
“It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going” (Hebrews 11:8).
I have placed my rainbow in the clouds. It is the sign of my covenant with you and with all the earth” (Genesis 9:11-13).
“I will make you into a great nation” (Genesis 12:2). “I will bless you and make you famous” (verse 2). “I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt” (verse 3). “All the families on earth will be blessed through you” (verse 3).
Today we know that God had in mind the nation of Israel, as history tells us that Abraham is the father of the Hebrew people.
We don’t like waiting, but that’s when God does some of His best work on our souls.
Son. He does promise, however, that temporal poverty for His sake will be richly rewarded in eternity
“All the families on earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:3).
The Lord established the Hebrew people as “a light for the nations, to open the eyes that are blind” (Isaiah 42:6-7, ESV).
“Lord, guide me into Your will, regardless of what change is necessary, regardless of where I must go or what I must do. I want You to know, Lord, I’m available. And I don’t want to live outside Your will.”
Every choice to follow God’s leading involves sacrifice—at least the sacrifice of our own desires.
We don’t do the people we admire any favors
by placing unrealistic burdens on their shoulders.
History shows that the sites where Abram constructed altars to God later became major centers of Hebrew worship.
God doesn’t use difficult circumstances to find out what we’ll do. He already knows what the future holds. He uses tests to reveal us to ourselves!
“If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall. The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience” (1 Corinthians 10:12-13).
How many people have yet to embrace the God of the Bible because they continue to live in the shadows created by our moral failures?
Abram departed for Canaan with the gifts he received from Pharaoh, which included livestock and servants (see Genesis 12:16)—among them a servant woman named Hagar.
The Lord’s favor on Abram didn’t depend upon the man’s good behavior.
You and I will need them for our own faith journey, especially when a devastating “famine” sweeps unexpectedly into our lives.
But your choice reveals what you value and whom you trust.
But Lot chose greed over gratitude. He chose wealth over family. He chose to trust himself rather than God.
“Look as far as you can see in every direction—north and south, east and west. I am giving all this land, as far as you can see, to you and your descendants as a permanent possession” (Genesis 13:14-15).
In addition to human interaction and the influence of nature, he accounted for the presence of God actively reaching down into creation to protect him, provide for him, guide him, and accomplish His divine plan through him.
Remember, the definition of faith is not merely belief in the existence of God; faith is trusting in God.
Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. JEREMIAH 31:31-33, ESV
“Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too” (Philippians 2:3-4).
Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. And blessed be God Most High, who has defeated your enemies for you.
GENESIS 14:19-20
He would accept blessing from none other than God, whose relationship meant more to him than anything else.
If I were to boil down all the characteristics of greatness to a single word, it would be humility.
