Today's Reading:
Genesis 20:1-22:24
Luke 4:31-5:11
Psalm 8:1-9
Click on Text Link to Read Online
Focus Verses:
Genesis 22:13-14
13
Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its
horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt
offering instead of his son. 14
So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it
is said, "On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided."
Insight:
Abraham
and Isaac believed that the God they followed and worshiped was the
only true God. The devotion they had for their God was no less than the
devotion the pagans around them had for their false Gods. If those
worshiping pagan deities were willing to sacrifice their children to
demonstrate complete devotion, Abraham was willing to do the same.
But
the one true God proved himself to be nothing like the false Gods of
the pagans. Those false God's were takers who demanded satisfaction. But
the true God, the God of Abraham and Isaac, was and is a provider. He
doesn't hurt and take away; he gives and protects.
God
demands my all and asks me to lay down my life, but it is actually God
who has given his Son, Jesus, to save me and give me life. Even as I
surrender my all, God provides more than I have to give.
Response and Action:
Like
Abraham, I want to be willing to give up anything for God. I want to
demonstrate that my devotion to God is as whole-hearted as anyone
else's devotion to anything else. I want to seek God above all else. I
do not want anything or anyone to be a rival for my commitment to God. I
am grateful that God is a giver. I rejoice that God is a giver and a
provider, not a taker who diminishes me. Instead, as I offer him my
all, he provides and blesses me and makes me more than I could ever be
on my own.
O Lord, you are good and
gracious to me. Thank you for Jesus who emptied himself for me and for
all humanity. Help me to become like him in my attitudes and actions
toward others. Help me to give grace more than I seek it; to love
others more than I seek to be loved; to forgive others more than I ask
for forgiveness; to understand others more than I seek to be
understood. Through Christ, I pray. Amen.
Spiritual Formation Verses: 1 John 4:9-10
9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Resources:
How To Read Genesis
by Tremper Longman
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