Category: Daily Devotionals

When he [Abram] was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance, and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me, but they will let you live. Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you… Genesis 12:11-13 ESV

Abram launched into problem-solving mode. It was common for those high up in powerful positions to seize and plunder others’ wives and belongings. Surely an Egyptian king would take beautiful Sarai for his own. To protect her, Abram saw deceit as his only answer. Why didn’t he ask God to change the king’s heart? He had already trusted God with bigger things.

While Abram’s error may seem obvious because it’s about him, it’s not when it’s about me. If I have a history of making things work to go my way, I won’t even think of trusting God with something of high consequence. I’ll force things, make a mess, and then when I’ve hit a wall, I’ll turn to crisis prayers.

More times than I can count, I’ve been hemmed in. At that moment, I said ~ “Something has got to be done now!”  Waiting on God seemed reckless. The stakes seemed too high so I stepped in to try to solve it myself. But there is always another choice. Instead of forcing things, even coercing people to comply with my solutions, I can turn to God and wait for him to move in the hearts of other people. 

After Abram took matters into his own hands, things fell apart. When it escalated to a life and death situation, God stepped in. How much suffering would have been avoided if trusting God had been his initial response.

I always want to do something rash to bring relief. But I’m stopping. I’m trusting You to and weave a plan that will bring wings to me and glory to You. Amen

And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb. Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land.  Genesis 12:9-10  ESV

Abram finally arrives in Canaan.  He is anxious to make it ‘home’ for his people but it turns out they can’t settle there yet because there is severe famine. Talk about disappointment!  But there is no indication that Abram was confused and that famine shook up his faith. His faith sustained him when, at that moment, God’s character could easily have been questioned.

Famine will drive Abram and his family to Egypt and his faith will be tested there.  God will use the circumstances to present the ‘perfect storm’.  The one who has not wavered yet from almost perfect obedience to God will falter.  God used adversity, like a famine, for the spiritual testing of this patriarch.

God is all about growing me up to a mature kind of faith, the kind Jesus had.  How does faith grow?  By testing what I know in the middle of the hard experiences of my life.  I can say I trust God but to what extent is that true?  Under what circumstances will my trust erode?  I can easily tell others that God is a faithful Father but will I believe that when I’m in the middle of a trail and can’t trace His hand yet? 

My first response to a famine in my spiritual Canaan can be to second-guess the decision I made to obey God and go there.  That conclusion is spiritually immature.  God can, and has, made promises to His chosen servants that were accompanied by adversity.  He promised favor but led them to pitch their tent with enemies.  He spoke of blessing but led them to the place where giants ruled.  He spoke of a promised land but then afflicted it with famine.  What kind of God is this?

Up to this point, Abram has been nearly perfect and someone hard to identify with.  That is about to change.  Our patriarchs were great men of faith but they were also human.  The scriptures don’t whitewash their sins nor do they hide them.  The lives of our forefathers were as messy as ours and yet we get to see God bless, correct, forgive, and then restore, time after time.  It is a Father/child relationship after all.

If I have heard God’s call, followed at great personal cost, and found myself in times of hardship, I know that this is not the end of the story.  God is in the process of transforming my faith while still being good for His promise.

And I should know better than to expect perfection in Canaan.  Canaan is not heaven, after all.   Help me adjust my expectations, rise above blaming, and call You good.  Amen

Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.  Genesis 12:6  ESV

Many have prayed for the will of God, followed His voice, and experienced complete disillusionment when they found themselves in hostile surroundings.  They blame God for being unloving or they blame themselves for being poor listeners.  Experiencing angst within the will of God is common and should not surprise God’s children.

When Abram encountered the Canaanites, hostile company epitomized, he didn’t pick up and move on.  He settled there.  Though he was the only Yahweh worshipper, He built an altar.  With far less revelation of God than I have, he was strong enough in his faith to be faithful.

Some years back, our family lived in a hostile environment.  We begged, daily, for release.  We were willing to move anywhere and do anything to escape our surroundings.  Surely, we reasoned, God wouldn’t want us to endure such a place.  Yet, every request for a move away was met by the silence of God.  One morning in prayer, the Spirit of God spoke to me through a verse in Psalms.  “Dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.”  Psalm 37:3    We were to learn how to make our little home a place where the glory of God rested.  We were to understand how to eat the sumptuous spiritual meal God provided daily amid our enemies.  We stayed three more years before God moved us out and that time proved to be one of the most formational times, spiritually, in our family’s history.

Many live in hostility.  Unfortunately, it can be with a husband, wife, child, or aging parent.  It can even be in a place of ministry.  Scorn and ridicule are the backdrops of daily life.  Instinct says to escape.  Do anything to run from such discomfort.  But God’s way is for His child to learn how to make Him their home.  The glory of Christ can descend on the darkest environment.

Give your child today spiritual grit, a willingness to stay in a tormenting place, and peace in submission.  Amen

And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.  Genesis 12:2  ESV

Few words in our Christian language are misunderstood more than the word ‘blessing.’ Because I am so prone to believe that earth should be my personal ‘heaven’, I assume it means something it really doesn’t. When my expectations are shattered, I’m angry with God for supposedly breaking His promises. 

Blessing means that I am graced with spiritual prosperity.

If I live in a crippled marriage, I can still be fruitful. My inner peace is not determined by whether I am loved by others. The promises of God bear the fruit of peace, hope, and a confidence that God rules over the unrighteous. I don’t have to make things fair.  He does that for me even on days I don’t yet see the evidence.  I believe that my faith sanctifies my household and I use my spiritual authority to engage in warfare by speaking scripture over my living space and over each member of my family.

If I live with cancer, I can still be fruitful. Momentary grace and spiritual stamina are promised to me as I immerse myself in the Word and in the presence of the Spirit. His love and compassion produce peace, hope, and confidence. By faith, I know that He is sovereign over the curse of disease and death. As often as needed I preach to my own soul and defer to the hope Jesus offers.

I am blessed, even in hardship. I remember that my spiritual forefathers, the prophets, and the disciples, entered the kingdom through much tribulation, but they held onto the promises of God and finished their lives with their faith intact. 

Your Word affects everything that afflicts my heart. Your Spirit comforts me in the intangible. Amen

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.  Genesis 12:1  ESV

A father is given divine rights to exert authority over his child.  He shapes his identity.  He establishes his parameters and boundaries.  He sets future goals for him in place and then corrects and encourages along the way.  Obedience and honor are the responsibilities of the child.  While giving honor will last a lifetime – obedience will not.  That child, if he comes to faith, will be adopted by another Father and everything will turn on its end.

As an adult, I leave the authority of my earthly father and step under the headship of my heavenly Father.  God’s commands take precedence over all other influences.  As His child, I look to Him to shape my identity, establish parameters and boundaries, and set goals, knowing He will correct and encourage along the way.  Obedience and honor are my responsibility.  Giving honor will last for all eternity – and so will obedience.

No wonder Jesus said that no one could follow him unless they were willing to leave father and mother, brother, and sister.  The changing of allegiances is the proof of salvation and this very dynamic is cataclysmic within families, especially if the earthly family does not know God.

In this context, the LORD speaks and calls Abram to leave his family and everything that is familiar.  This leaving will not be just physical, but spiritual.  He is to turn his back on the gods of his ancestors and of his countrymen.  He is to do what no one has ever done; leave everything and go west with an unknown destination.  Abram will do all of this because a God he didn’t know all that well yet called him by name and gave him a command and a promise.

The call of God on my life will also be cataclysmic too. There will be people who will criticize, family loyalties will be threatened, and church friends may consider my steps to be too radical. They cannot understand it as I understand it because the only one who hears the call (and the daily revelations that go with it) is the one with whom God speaks.

A life of pilgrimage is not for the fainthearted.  Strength, direction, grit, and endurance come to the pilgrim who holds the hand of his Father every step of the way.

When my obedience is tested with famine, breathe over me Your encouragement.  In Jesus’ name, Amen

Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot.  Genesis 11:27  ESV

Ten generations after Noah, through the blessed lineage of Shem, Terah was born.  Though Shem walked with God, it didn’t take long for his descendants to be become polytheistic.  Their prominent god was the moon.  In later times, with moon worship in tact, food was laid out at night to absorb the rays of the moon, which were thought to have power to cure disease and prolong life.  Not much has changed, really.  One of the most beautiful and current songs of our day is made famous by the talented Celtic Women.  The name?  The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress.

It was in this spiritual environment that Abram was born.  His home was not ‘Yahweh friendly’ yet it was out of his family line that Jesus would be born.  Can children with holy callings arise out of spiritual wastelands?  Yes!  A resounding yes. 

That answer should comfort any who fear that their past is too scarred for God to use them.  We place far too much emphasis on our past to try to determine the possibilities of future success.  We fear for children if we have an unbelieving spouse, fearing that the ungodly influence they suffer at home will prevent them from hearing the call of God in their lives.  Yet how many Christian leaders, like Abram, have come to faith simply by coming face to face with Jesus Christ!

Once God decides to open the eyes of an unbeliever to the beauty and glory of His Son, Jesus, any degree of spiritual blindness is instantly cured.  Nothing can stop or hinder it. A child of an alcoholic, a child of an atheist, a child of a pedophile, any of these could be the next evangelist.  No toxic childhood environment can thwart the call. 

What kind of obstacles have me worried today about a relative, friend, spouse, or child?  Do I really believe their spiritual condition to be hopeless?  How small is my God!  How puny is my faith!  Abram, growing up with gods on the shelves in his home, is about to hear Yahweh’s voice for the first time.  Like Saul, it will be such a powerful encounter that he will sacrifice everything to follow.

Give me the grace to kill all despair with faith!  In Jesus’ name, Amen

Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.  Genesis 12:6  ESV

Many have prayed for the will of God, followed His voice, and experienced complete disillusionment when they found themselves in hostile surroundings.  They blame God for being unloving or they blame themselves for being poor listeners.  Experiencing angst within the will of God is common and should not surprise God’s children.

When Abram encountered the Canaanites, hostile company epitomized, he didn’t pick up and move on.  He settled there.  Though he was the only Yahweh worshipper, He built an altar.  With far less revelation of God than I have, he was strong enough in his faith to be faithful.

Some years back, our family lived in a hostile environment.  We begged, daily, for release.  We were willing to move anywhere and do anything to escape our surroundings.  Surely, we reasoned, God wouldn’t want us to endure such a place.  Yet, every request for a move away was met by the silence of God.  One morning in prayer, the Spirit of God spoke to me through a verse in Psalms.  “Dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.”  Psalm 37:3    We were to learn how to make our little home a place where the glory of God rested.  We were to understand how to eat the sumptuous spiritual meal God provided daily amid our enemies.  We stayed three more years before God moved us out and that time proved to be one of the most formational times, spiritually, in our family’s history.

Many live in hostility.  Unfortunately, it can be with a husband, wife, child, or aging parent.  It can even be in a place of ministry.  Scorn and ridicule are the backdrops of daily life.  Instinct says to escape.  Do anything to run from such discomfort.  But God’s way is for His child to learn how to make Him their home.  The glory of Christ can descend on the darkest environment.

Give your child today spiritual grit, a willingness to stay in a tormenting place, and peace in submission.  Amen

And you are to tell them that this is what the LORD says: ‘If you do not listen to Me and walk in My law, which I have set before you, and if you do not listen to the words of My servants the prophets, whom I have sent to you again and again even though you did not listen, then I will make this house like Shiloh, and I will make this city an object of cursing among all the nations of the earth.’  Jeremiah 26:5

Today, I am breaking away from Genesis. 

This detour comes after having a dream last night that I was in, and was one of, a group of braggers.  We boasted of being on the right side of the political divide, of being aligned with brilliant voices that make up the critical thinkers of the most famous conservative news outlet.  We all claimed to be God’s warriors, battling His causes by fighting evil.  We even broke into prayer, asking Jesus to come as a victor and to make everything right, and to vindicate His people.  In my dream, we did not look at all like worshippers, but warriors.

I woke up and realized that this was not dreamlike fiction.

God is not impressed, nor pleased, with our stand on current events if we point the finger and fail to pray for those in authority. Every day, our president and members of congress are called idiots and losers by God’s people.  Name-calling is hateful, delivered with tones of disgust.  Prayerful filters are often missing, giving way to rants on social media, in small gatherings, and even in the hallways of our local churches.  We are so sure that we are right, that God is with us, that we’ve lost our head and our edge.    

• Jesus, our Prophet, implores us to consider the log in our own eyes regarding the very sins for which we want to stone others.  Pride, revenge, and rebellion.

• Jesus, our Priest, calls us to humble intercession, imploring us to pray for our enemies.  Our anger is epic but where are our tears?  Wielding truth without love nullifies the Truth in others ears.

• Jesus, our King, calls us to abandon our swords as we attempt to overthrow the Roman empire.  We are to recover the mantle of spiritual authority we abdicated when we became a brood of little kings, failing to defer to the King of Kings.    

Paul asked the Galatian believers who had bewitched them.  We are wise to consider the question for ourselves.  False prophets abound and beg for our attention.  The wisest thing for us to do is to stop. 

Stop talking. 

Stop marching. 

Stop casting judgments that have long ceased being righteous. 

Are we on the Lord’s side? 

Am I?  I’m still. I’m silent. I’m brought low. Show me.  Amen

Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves…  Genesis 11:4  ESV

How small God must have seemed to them.  Solidarity was created among the peoples of this region to think that they could build a tower tall enough to reach into the heavens and, in the process, make a name for themselves. 

People were never meant to be the objects of another’s worship.  We are to be worshippers.  We were never meant to make a name for ourselves.  God’s name is to be our banner.  It’s a tragedy is when people spend their life building towers that offer them fame; towers in business, towers in ministry, towers in beauty, towers of outstanding talent.  Feeling small, man devises his own sources of healing. All the while, the quest for identity remains earthbound.

In the 1980’s, when my quest for significance consumed me, God began speaking to me about my fears and about identity.  I wrote this song that would allow the names God calls me to wash over my soul.  Anytime I felt inadequate or forgotten, I could sing it.  Over the years, I have recorded different versions of it.  Just recently, Jaime and I resurrected it to sing again at a local event.  We needed to hear it again. 

Earth is an orphanage.  Orphans flounder.  But, God will whisper these truths into the ears of His much-loved adopted children.

GOD GAVE ME HIS NAME

Looking down at the ground

Shadows around me are all I see

They accuse and abuse

Stealing my value, whispering lies to me.

CHORUS

I am a light; I am His bride

An heir to His kingdom; His cross at my side

I am His friend; A daughter and saint

Anointed with love, and mercy and grace

I will stand tall and carry no shame

When I remember God gave me His name.