THE RESURRECTED LIFE -- Day 2

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Day 2:  Abraham's Part of the Covenant (Genesis 17)

At the age of 99, God Almighty, El Shaddai, speaks again to his servant Abram, calling him to “walk before Me, and be blameless.”  God reminded him again of the blessings that would come and even changed his name to Abraham (from “exalted father” to “the father of a multitude.”)  All the blessings that would come from God’s covenant with Abraham were God’s part of the covenant.  But Abraham wasn’t off the hook.  God clearly told him his part in the covenant, “This is My covenant, which YOU SHALL KEEP, between Me and you and your descendants after you:  every male among you shall be circumcised.”

I can’t even begin to imagine Abraham’s initial response to such a command!  Can you?  Yet, he immediately went out from God’s presence and obeyed what the Lord had commanded.  Maybe it was the terms of the consequences of disobedience that catapulted Abraham to such obedient action.  God had precisely told him that any who refused to comply with the covenant agreement would be cut off from his people.  Disobedience would be evidence of a broken covenant, and God takes covenant very seriously!

Abraham understood his relationship with God. He knew his responsibility was to keep his end of the covenant in order to stay in covenant relationship.  It is clear that God has a part for us to do as well.  While Abraham’s part was to circumcise the flesh of the foreskin of every male, our part is to allow God to circumcise the foreskin of our hearts.  God wants to weed out every sin that still lies in our hearts, every wrong motive, every wicked word of our tongue, with the goal being Christ-likeness.  Our circumcised hearts are a sign to God that we are living obedient, surrendered lives.  This is our part of the covenant.

Another way to look at the circumcision of our hearts is to return to God’s words to Abraham:  “Walk before Me, and be blameless.”  These words He still loudly speaks to us today.  God is calling us to personal holiness (“Be holy, for I am holy”), to sanctification.  This includes walking in the Spirit, growing into mature Christians, dying to our fleshly disobedience, and living a life of integrity.  Are you as willing to obey God’s command as Abraham was?  Are you today?  Consider your answer, and talk to God about it.  Remember, God takes covenant seriously.  So should we!

THE RESURRECTED LIFE--Day 1

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Day 1--God's Covenant with Abram  (Genesis 12, 15)

You may be wondering why I would include an Old Testament character in a devotional about heart and life transformation due to a relationship with Jesus Christ.  It is a good question, and I think you might be surprised at the answer.  Over the next three days you will clearly be able to see that Abraham was aware of the coming Messiah, and that he himself was directly involved in God’s marvelous plan for salvation.

In Genesis 12 we see that Abram was set apart by God, and was called forth from the country he knew, from all of his relatives, and from his own father’s house, to go to a land that he did not know.  God promised to bless him and make his name great.  Abram was 75 years old. 

He departed his home town of Haran, taking Sarai, his wife and Lot, his nephew, his servants, and possessions.  Can you imagine the faith that it took to leave everything familiar, safe, and secure in his life?  What would it require of us to respond in such a way?  Maybe, if we knew that surrender was required of us for the Savior’s purposes, we would respond with that level of obedience and faith. 

Abram wasn’t walking in blind faith.  God had clearly spoken a message to him that encouraged his heart to respond as he did.  In the initial promises of the covenant with Abram, God’s last words were these:  “And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”  Do you see the importance of this tiny revelation?  Abram was the beginning of the Hebrew (Jewish) race.  But God did not say that through Abram the Jewish families would be blessed.  He said that all the families of the earth would be blessed.  That included you and me!  Jews and Gentiles would be blessed through Abram and his seed. 

Today, it is important for you to consider what great things you have been told and promised in God’s word.  It is time to evaluate your life in order to measure your level of obedience to God’s words to you.  Are you going in the direction that God has asked you to go?  Your obedience is no less required of you than was Abram’s to fulfill God’s purposes.  Obedience is always our choice, and it flows out of our relationship with God, on in which we understand what is required of us.

Take Careful Aim

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Before Israel could enter their new land, Moses was commanded to set before them the choice for either blessing or curses, and it all hinged on their obedience to the Lord. God seeks our surrender today to Him so that we might fully obey all that He has declared to us in His Word. We, like Israel, have seen God's great favor upon our lives. Could there be a more proper response than our obedience?

Those who were now preparing to enter their new homeland, had been small children when they left Egypt, or maybe not even born yet.  But those small children had witnessed the mighty arm of God, working in their midst.  They had seen His miracles, favor, and provision.  They had also seen the death that had come to the chronically disobedient.  They had watched as their fathers failed to keep their covenant promises to their covenant-keeping God.  Now it was their generation's turn to make the same promises to obey their God.  How would they fare?  The choice was up to them, and the results of their lives, whether it be God's blessings or curses, be based on the depth of their obedience to Him.


Today, though believers are under grace (God's favor), that same grace does not mean that when we sin and disobey God's word that we are off the hook. God is our loving Father, and out of His love He will always discipline a wayward child.  Consequences are inevitable.  That is why it is critical for us to aim carefully at the right target!  That target is every word of the Word.  

What are you aiming at?  Do you start your day thinking about all the ways that you can be obedient to God, or all the ways you can "fudge" what He is really asking you to do?  Do you begin your days in a posture of surrender?  (Okay, now I really jabbed myself!)  God's is not winking at our disobedience.  It is not His will that we would claim our human nature as our justification to keep on doing what is displeasing to Him.  If the target is walking in the favor and blessing of Almighty God, are your arrows straight and true?  Is your aim?  God is looking to see where those arrows lie....on the ground, all around the target, or in the bull's eye.