Category: Daily Devotionals

And he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.” But he said, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?”  Genesis 15:7-8  ESV

Because of Jesus’ harsh words in the Gospels about asking for a sign, I can wrongly conclude that asking for such a thing is displeasing to God.  But this story is just one passage in the Old Testament that proves God gladly gives signs.  The difference between an acceptable request and an unacceptable request is the kind of heart that asks.

Abram had already believed God, so much so that God had declared him righteous.  The sign he asked for was a commemorative event that would forever serve to remind him that God’s promise would come true.

An unacceptable request for a sign comes from unbelief.  You’ve heard people say such things.  “When God comes down here Himself to tell me, then I’ll believe it!”  With such statements, there is no humility, no trace of true searching.  The undertone smacks of blasphemy.

If signs were evil, then why would God give Jesus as a sign?  Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.  Is.7:14   When His people, in the context of relationship, looked longingly for salvation, God gave the best sign of all.  His only Son!

Perhaps God has spoken to you about your future.  You know that God does not lie.  You know that God is a covenant-keeping God.  You have been standing in faith, watching for the fulfillment of what He has promised.  But let’s face it, there are discouraging days.  We have an enemy who assaults us on all sides and undermines God’s character.  Our hearts can faint even though at the core of our spirit, we still believe.  We cry out to God for a sign, for a commemorative event that will strengthen our weakened hearts. God knows the deep weariness that plagues His people during steep obedience.  He is the one who sent angels to minister to Jesus in the wilderness when He was depleted and weary.   He is the Father who rewards faith with signs and answered prayers.

You are the Father who rewards my faith with signs, wonders, and answered prayers.  In between, give me the grace for sustaining faith.  Amen

And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.  Genesis 15:6  ESV

Abraham believed God for what he didn’t have (an heir and descendants), and for what he could never have without God making it happen.  That was called faith. God was so overjoyed by Abram’s faith that he declared him righteous on the spot.  God made it as though Abram lived on the other side of the cross, already wearing Christ’s righteousness.  Only Abram in all of history, prior to the death of Christ, was justified and declared righteous.  The rest of God’s followers made continual sacrifices to cover their sins, but their sins weren’t taken away for another thousand years.

This tells me, through story form, how much God prizes faith.  Am I believing God today for something I don’t have, for something I could never have without a gift from God’s hand?  Have I put everything on the line – waiting for God to move?  That is how faith looks. 

When I embraced Jesus as my Savior, I believed that He would forgive me and adopt me as His own.  These were things I couldn’t earn nor accomplish in any way for myself.  I laid everything on the line for what God promised to do for me.  That was my first great act of faith.  But my life is to be marked by daily acts of faith.  It’s tragic when I enter the kingdom by faith only to live the rest of my life attempting to control things.  I miss out on the miracles and the amazement!

In the mid-90s, I put everything on the line.  Many things crumbled all around me.  I could have shut down, curled up in a ball, decided to live with a deadened heart, or I could decide to cast my life upon Jesus and cry out for what I would never have without His intervention.  I’m so glad I made the third choice.

I look again at my life this morning.  I examine what appears hopeless, where I believe nothing can ever change.  This is where faith can be born.  I take my unbelief, speak God’s words over my dark thoughts, and cast all my hopes on Christ. 

Faith is not rational.  It appears ludicrous to anyone watching.  That’s okay, Jesus.  Faith is a supernatural thing, fed on the diet of Your Word and the breath of Your Spirit.  Amen

But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?”  Genesis 15:2  ESV

Abandoning prayer about anything is a mistake but abandoning prayer for what I’m most in need of is a grave error.  Prayerlessness is the result of unbelief.  I have concluded that God can’t, or won’t, do anything good for me.  When I read God’s promises, I can be a skeptic, because they are so far out of my reach. 

God promised Abram an heir, with descendants as numerous as the sands of the sea.  The thought of this must have seemed ludicrous to Abram because, at that point, his only heir was a slave of his household.  He and his wife, Sarah, were too old to bear children.  Yet in spite of this obstacle, Abram believed and his faith that God could do the impossible was credited to him as righteousness.

I frequently ask myself where I have lost faith in God.  When captivity spans 15 years, when infertility enters the second decade of a marriage, when a wayward child doesn’t call home in years, when depression becomes a way of life, when financial struggles become the norm, when the family experiences a seemingly irreparable breach, these are the kinds of things that tempt me to lose faith. 

I need to hear the voice of the God of Abraham.  He lives in Spirit form, right in my own heart.  He’s speaking constantly, wooing me to believe, wooing me to hope in Him again.  He is the One who does the impossible as He rewards the ones who persevere in prayer.

At this moment, the embers of faith are stirring in someone reading this.  Is it you?  Tears of relief are in your eyes as you realize that deep discouragement no longer need be your friend.  You can be fully alive to God, fully alive to faith, once again!  As you and I look at a few of the sad themes of our lives, we can numb out and feel nothing.  That is the very area where prayers of faith need to live.

I infuse my unbelief with your hope-giving Word.  Amen

When Abram heard that his kinsman had been taken captive, he led forth his trained men…  Genesis 14:14  ESV

Abram surprises us when he takes up arms to fight.  He has always been a peacemaker.  No one who read his story in the preceding chapters would have any idea that he had a small, trained army within his own household.  Now, they are revealed and are released to go fight the enemies who have taken his nephew, Lot, captive.  Though Abram’s men are greatly outnumbered, they are fierce warriors with God on their side.  They will defeat the captors and free Lot.  This will not be the first or last time we will see God astound us.

It’s always a shock when a peacemaker is willing to fight.  It’s equally shocking when a fighter lays down his sword and pulls a chair up to the table to seek peace. Both have earned a reputation for responding to life in their own preferred way.

Each of us is bent, because of our personality, more toward one than the other.  Gentle spirits love peace and hate conflict.  Feisty spirits love a good fight and see those who seek peace as being weak.  We build a track record for only responding one way and those around us count on us to react as we have always done.  I am a peacemaker, by nature, and not easily inflamed.  It takes a lot to anger me and while that can appear admirable, I will tell you that it can be a fault.  A friend once told me, after hearing a few stories about a time when I had been badly harassed by someone, that I was patient to a fault.  She was right.

A balanced child of God, one who is like Jesus, does not act solely out of his personality type.  He listens to Jesus and follows Him even when he is asked to do something he finds more difficult.  A fighter needs to learn to be still.  A peacemaker needs to learn how to fight.  There is a time to take the hill and there is a time to show restraint.

 Many of us can live our lives thinking that the bents of our personality are the best traits.  May we meet in the middle?  Both are needed and both, acting under the direction of the Spirit, play pivotal roles in the purposes of God.

Teach me when to fight and not retreat.  Give me the boldness to step outside of my peacemaker box.  Amen

So the enemy took all the possessions of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their provisions, and went their way. They also took Lot, the son of Abram’s brother, who was dwelling in Sodom, and his possessions, and went their way.  Genesis 14:11-12  ESV

What looks good not be good for me.  When I choose something based on eye appeal, I will become a casualty of my ignorance.

Abram had been generous.  He and Lot had stood overlooking the vistas of new land and a new future.  Abram gave Lot the first choice of where he’d like to settle.  Lot was not prayerful, did not seek God, and did not seek Abram’s advice either.  He grabbed the greenest land to the East and settled there.  It was the land of Sodom. He did not know the folly of making such a critical decision without prayer.  In just thirteen years, enemies would come in, conquer the land, and take Lot and his family captive.

Seeing how this story turned out, I can over-correct in the flesh and do the opposite thing.  I vow to pick the lesser of two choices, thinking this to be God’s life lesson.  That is equally foolish.  The problem was not the lush land of Sodom.  The problem was Lot’s heart and his casual disregard for God’s will.

I must not let anything temporal control me. I can enjoy beautiful things but should hold them loosely. When presented with a job offer, one lucrative and one modest, I know I may be drawn to the one that promises wealth.  That being true, I know that I can’t trust myself.  Only God knows if that option is good for me lest I become like Lot whose perceived good fortune led him into slavery.

What choices are you weighing today?  Who to marry, where to move, what job to take, where to move a parent with special needs, and what church to attend?  The choice that seems obvious may be the wrong one.  The one without the glitter may turn out to be a blessing in disguise.  God is all too willing to reveal His secrets to any child who acknowledges that he is void of wisdom.

One final thought.  Lot knew God had spoken to Abram and promised him a blessed future.  Deciding to part ways with Abram at all was his greatest mistake

I make such a mess when I live by my senses.  I can’t tell what I’m looking at.  Oh God, protect me and lead me.  In Jesus’ name, Amen

Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.”  Genesis 13:17  ESV

God never meant for me to be passive about my faith.  He has made promises but I must make them mine by walking them out.  There will be times that promises appear to be in threat so I must rise to fight for faith.  There will be giants in my Canaan.  A life of faith does not mean a life of resting.  I must expect battles.

Being an ambassador of God on this earth means ruling on behalf of the His kingdom.  He’s the One who commissioned me.  Though earth is not my home, I’m sent here to represent my King and bring the laws of His kingdom to earth.  This is a cooperative effort.  As I prayerfully rule and do my part, God has my back.  As I stand in His promises, He fulfills them.  That’s why Moses was told to raise the rod over the Red Sea.  That’s why Joshua and the Israelites were told to march around the walls of Jericho.  They did their part and God brought the victory. 

God has just given Abram a blessing.  He promises him land in every direction his eyes can see and offspring greater than the sands of the sea.  But it won’t come to pass without Abram’s involvement.  He is told to walk the length and breadth of the land – personally staking his claim.

Walking out God’s promises is to be my way of life.  When my children’s future appears to be tenuous, I get on my knees and stake my claim on God’s promises for them.  When the ministry is under spiritual attack, I go to a day of fasting and re-claim the promises surrounding my calling.  When my home is under attack; when anger, anxiety, or depression swirl, when equipment begins to malfunction, when sleep is robbed, when people begin to act out without a cause, I do what Abram did.  I walk the lines of my property and sing.  I also take my “I Am” sheet with me and read it as I walk.  The victory is mine as God engages with my faith walk. 

Giants in the land were never there to cause me to faint.  They were there to teach me to live and fight for faith. 

When there were too many obstacles, Lord, I used to just abdicate.  Thank you for teaching me how to fight and for giving victory after victory.  As the stakes get higher, give me the grace to walk with more boldness.  Amen 

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, for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever.  Romans 13:14-15  ESV

Abram deferred to Lot out of sheer grace.  “Of all the land in front of us,” Abram said to Lot, “pick where you’d like to live!”  Lot chose with his eyes and picked Sodom, in the Eastward direction, because it was lush and green.  So, I can only gasp at the generosity of God.  He immediately spoke to Abram and told him that He would give him all the land in front of him; north, south, west, andeast.  Hadn’t Abram just given the east to Lot?  Yet God is telling him that it will still be his.

Why would I ever whine about how hard it is to follow God?  Why does He have such a bad reputation among His children for requiring unreasonable obedience?  Every time I obey, God rewards me somehow.  The payoffs are the joy of obedience, internal peace, and a sense of God’s favor in my life.  The payoff is also God rearranging my circumstances, changing people’s hearts, and causing me to inherit was has always been mine for His purposes. 

God is not the only One who gives rewards.  People give rewards.  Parents, bosses, and some in authority.  How many of their compensations seem fair?  They are usually skewed somehow, not equal to or greater than the cost.  Satan also rewards those who serve him.  Material things can pour in on the unrighteous and cause God’s children to say, “Why do the evil prosper?”  Satan often makes God look stingy and how he loves that! 

God has called me to pick up my cross and follow Jesus but I remember, as I struggle, that God will not only reward me but will give me the grace to say no to Satan’s premature payoffs and sources of pain relief.  By God’s grace, I will not cave.  And I will not be fooled by those who appear to have it all.  I have it all – in Christ. 

Change my heart’s appetite for heaven’s rewards. Amen

So Lot chose for himself all the Jordan Valley, and Lot journeyed east. Thus they separated from each other. Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom.  Genesis 13:11-12  ESV

Abram gave Lot first choice as to which part of the land he wanted to claim for himself.  Lot chose the Jordan valley, a gorgeous, well-watered piece of property that resembled the garden of the Lord.  He chose with his eyes, with his senses.  His choice will come back to haunt him.  That which looked lush was really Sodom and he will barely escape with his life in the days to come.

I cannot assess anything correctly without consulting God. What looks lush one day can be a wasteland tomorrow.  And what looks barren today can be lush tomorrow once the hand of a miracle-working God touches it.  Does history not teach me this? 

God was clear not to judge a book by its cover, even when it comes to people.   He often chooses the least, the uneducated and the un-popular.  They can be the ones others pass over. When people choose leaders, they lean on their senses, caving to charisma and good looks.  God’s man may be someone others walk by and never give a second thought.  It was true with Jesus.

I stand at many crossroads over the course of my life.  God might call me to embrace a place, a calling, a companion, or a direction in life that appears to be wrong.  It may not glitter.  It might even repel.  I should not second-guess God’s voice.  Jesus was born in a stable, not a palace.  What seems so common can be transformed by the wind of the Spirit into something heavenly.  He turns deserts into gardens.  

I am reminded yet again that if I choose with my senses, I could very well regret it.  I will risk settling, working, and marrying in Sodom.

Abram wasn’t shaken by Lot’s choice.  He still trusted You and knew blessing was wherever You were leading Him.  I shut the eyes of my flesh and journey with You through the back door of blessing.  In Jesus’ name, Amen

And Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents, so that the land could not support both of them dwelling together; for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together, and 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. 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. 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.” Genesis 13:5-9  ESV

There is no way to write about Abram’s dealings with Lot without displaying the entire scripture passage which tells the story.  Abram did what goes against the grain of every human being.  He gave preference to the ones who wanted his blessing.  Abram and Lot were never unified in mission.  There had been friction from the start.  Now, the conflict between them rises to the surface again.  The land is too small for both and all their flocks.  Their herdsman are fighting over pasture land and who should have rights to it.

Abram knows God has promised him the land and the blessing of prosperity.  But, instead of hoarding the blessing, instead of rising to play God, he defers to Lot.  He lets him be the first to choose what part of the land he would like to make his own.  Abram showed a lack of self-interest.  Why would he be so generous?

Because he believed in the sovereignty and promises of God.  Deferring to Lot would not threaten what God had promised.  Abram didn’t need to fight for what God said was his.  That battle was God’s and Abram rested in future provision.

God has given each of His children a calling and a host of promises to accompany it.  No one can steal it. God may be invisible but He is not inactive.  I do not need to come apart when it appears that I’m about to be crowded out of the picture.  God is still pulling strings to ensure my future.  I can step aside and be gracious, even to the unrighteous, feeling no need to fight for what God said is mine.  I can choose to live in the confidence of God’s promises rather than the fear of being left out.

From the time we are small, we cry when another takes away our toy. “Mine,” we protest.  The sense of injustice takes over our emotions.  God’s ways are difficult, and it takes the grace of God to react differently in adulthood.  Like Jesus who laid aside glory to become a servant, we can choose to serve our enemies, too.  His future was not threatened even though it looked like it was for a time.  Today, He sits in His rightful place of rule and authority.  The supposed threats are dead and gone and virtually nameless.  So it is if we choose to follow Jesus.  Deferring is not losing.  Deferring is an act of faith and the pathway to the blessing and inheritance that cannot be taken away.

When I’m clutching and hoarding, speak to my fearful heart.  In Jesus’ name, Amen

But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. So Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife?  Genesis 12:17-18  ESV

When someone acts in a way that is different from their reputation, they usually become a topic of conversation.  If a consistently nice person turns on someone without provocation, it will be said ~ “I can’t believe it.  I’ve never seen them act like this!”  If a man leaves his wife after thirty-five years of marriage, a man others perceived as loving and stable, it will be said ~ “He was the last man I would ever believe could abandon his family.” This is the stuff that makes headlines; when people act out in ways that are contrary to their reputation. When Abram, well-known throughout Jewish history for his faith, distrusted God and lied to a king to save his family, it was said ~ “Abram really did that?”

Most of the time, the places where I sin are not surprising to me.  I know my weaknesses and I have a history of struggle in those areas.  Those who know me well know these chinks in my armor as well and pray for me.  What takes me by surprise however is when I fall in areas I think I’m immune.  I don’t expect the temptation, perfectly customized by an enemy who knows how he must present it to me.  He shapes its appeal to my liking and then times it perfectly.  When it appears on my radar, falling for it seems so natural that I’m completely disarmed.

On Abram’s great journey of faith from Ur to the Promised Land, he had moments where he was unfaithful.  He was tested again in those same areas and failed repeatedly.  But by God’s grace, he would succeed in the future in the biggest faith-test of all.  On Mt. Moriah, he would trust God by laying Isaac on the altar and raising a knife to take his life. Though he couldn’t see how God could intervene, he would obey nonetheless, and go down in history as the first one to whom God credited righteousness.

It is important to remember that I am not above any sin.  But what is also important is to remember is that no sin disqualifies me from God’s mercy.  He loves me even while I’m sinning.  His covenant love is not shaken loose because I wander into enemy territory. 

You are a God of mercy to a world of sinners, a God of grace to the throng of beggars.  I am both.  Amen