Friday 13 Apr 2012

Friday Reading: Genesis 17:1

Key Verse: Genesis 17:1
1  And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.

Devotion:
When people say that God’s Word never changes they not only refer to the fact that what God has presented to us is something that does not need revision but that right from the beginning God has been trying to get us to understand that we are the sinners and that what He is teaching us is the absolute truth that we need to trust in and believe; and not just the parts that we want to, but all of it.

God’s promise to Abraham was not said one day and enacted the very next day. That would not have been to God’s glory. But instead Abraham would have to wait on God and not to try and get things done through his own means! Too many times in our lives we are not willing to be patient and wait on God for the things that He has promised us. We try to get things done in our own time so that we will not have to wait – after all, we don’t like to be kept waiting.

But when we look at how God has continued to uphold His ways and teach us to be patient we should be realising by now that God wants to be given the glory and not have it torn away from Him by our greedy and prideful spirits. When God gives us a promise it is something that is going to happen and not just something He has said at the heat of the moment or to get a reaction out of us. When we look back on our lives we can probably spot many times in our lives when things were said that should not have been said; and looking back to those times we begin to see how we tried to dig ourselves out of holes by saying something nice or saying something we did not actually mean at the time.

One thing God has taught me is that patience is going to save me from many tight spots and many awkward moments. Yes there are still going to be times when I dig very big holes and jump straight into them, but there are also going to be many times when I can now look back and say thank you to Him for not letting me give in and say things that I did not mean at the time. This last decade, as He has been patiently teaching me about the love that I should have had from when I first got to know Him, and not something that I only picked up after breaking things for a couple of decades before that, God has given me many insights into His immense love for us and how we can be perfected through following His example.

Points to Ponder:
Do you think you will get everything right the first time round?

Do you trust and obey so that you can learn quicker from our Master?