Today’s Readings
Context
When there is a problem in this world, God has a solution - he sends a baby! He called Abram to be the father of many nations, but he and his wife Sarai were old and unable to have children. God gave them a baby by miraculous (if frustrating) means. When the people of Israel were enslaved in Egypt, what did God do? He sent a baby, born into slavery but who delivered the people from bondage. And, of course, many years later, God sent another baby, born in Bethlehem, laid in a manger - a fully human baby but also the Son of God. He lived perfectly among us and he delivered us from our sins.
We see in today's reading the establishment of a pattern in God's activity in the world. God works by his miraculous power, but only in such a way that everyone knows that it was God who did it and that he gets the glory. God often does the absurd.
We see in today's reading the establishment of a pattern in God's activity in the world. God works by his miraculous power, but only in such a way that everyone knows that it was God who did it and that he gets the glory. God often does the absurd.
Devotional
Do you believe what God says?
Do you believe what God says when the circumstances of life say loudly and clearly that the word of God is not true?
Abram received a promise of God, that he would be the father of many nations, and especially the father of the chosen nation, the people of God. There was one problem. When God gave him that command, he was 75 and his wife was 65, and they'd never been able to have children. Would you agree that if you've reached that age and not been able to have a child, that your chances of conceiving are, to say the least, remote.
So what did God do? He waited 25 years! Think about that. God waited not 5 years, not 10, not 20, but 25 years! Now the renamed Sarah is 89 and her husband is 99 and a couple of men (actually angels) appear to them and announce that she would have a baby.
Is it any wonder that she laughed?
But that is what God does, it's how God works. He is determined to work among us in such a way that it is clear that the power comes from God and God alone and that the glory properly goes to him. If 65 year-old Sarah had a baby, people would say it was an amazing thing - how strange. But by the time she was 90 and Abraham was 100, it was nothing but an undeniable miracle from God.
Unfortunately, along the way, Abraham lost faith one time, and rough his wife's handmaiden Hagar he fathered Ishmael, the ancestor of the Arab nations that have so plagued the Israelite people throughout history. His failure of faith caused him to act in the flesh and cause great problems.
Will you trust God? Often - VERY often - the events of this world will make it seem as if God's word is not true and God's promises will not be fulfilled. God has promised never to leave us, but sometimes we feel abandoned. God's provision sometimes seems as if it will never come. Some prayers seem destined to fail. But God is faithful no matter what your feelings or circumstances stay. What God says he will do. What God promises he will provide.
That is why we are called to walk by faith and not by sight. Sight told Abraham and Sarah that God was wrong and they would die childless. In fact, if they told someone they would have offspring who would become many nations, people would have rationally called them crazy. But they weren't crazy, they were faithful. God had spoken and they were simply walking by faith instead of by sight.
Think and Pray
Do you determine what is true or possible based on what your eyes see or your heart feels, or do you listen to God and his word?
The real truth in any situation is what God says!
Think brought situations in your life and analyze the difference between what God says about them and what circumstances or your feelings any.
Do you believe what God says when the circumstances of life say loudly and clearly that the word of God is not true?
Abram received a promise of God, that he would be the father of many nations, and especially the father of the chosen nation, the people of God. There was one problem. When God gave him that command, he was 75 and his wife was 65, and they'd never been able to have children. Would you agree that if you've reached that age and not been able to have a child, that your chances of conceiving are, to say the least, remote.
So what did God do? He waited 25 years! Think about that. God waited not 5 years, not 10, not 20, but 25 years! Now the renamed Sarah is 89 and her husband is 99 and a couple of men (actually angels) appear to them and announce that she would have a baby.
Is it any wonder that she laughed?
But that is what God does, it's how God works. He is determined to work among us in such a way that it is clear that the power comes from God and God alone and that the glory properly goes to him. If 65 year-old Sarah had a baby, people would say it was an amazing thing - how strange. But by the time she was 90 and Abraham was 100, it was nothing but an undeniable miracle from God.
Unfortunately, along the way, Abraham lost faith one time, and rough his wife's handmaiden Hagar he fathered Ishmael, the ancestor of the Arab nations that have so plagued the Israelite people throughout history. His failure of faith caused him to act in the flesh and cause great problems.
Will you trust God? Often - VERY often - the events of this world will make it seem as if God's word is not true and God's promises will not be fulfilled. God has promised never to leave us, but sometimes we feel abandoned. God's provision sometimes seems as if it will never come. Some prayers seem destined to fail. But God is faithful no matter what your feelings or circumstances stay. What God says he will do. What God promises he will provide.
That is why we are called to walk by faith and not by sight. Sight told Abraham and Sarah that God was wrong and they would die childless. In fact, if they told someone they would have offspring who would become many nations, people would have rationally called them crazy. But they weren't crazy, they were faithful. God had spoken and they were simply walking by faith instead of by sight.
Father, help me to remember that your word is the truth in my life, not my feelings or circumstances. May I walk by faith and not by sight.
Think and Pray
Do you determine what is true or possible based on what your eyes see or your heart feels, or do you listen to God and his word?
The real truth in any situation is what God says!
Think brought situations in your life and analyze the difference between what God says about them and what circumstances or your feelings any.
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