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!

What Are You Saying?

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Moses knew that his days were numbered.  So he listened intently to God's instructions for His people.  God talked to him (again) about the 7 feasts and all of the required sacrifices.  But He followed up with some laws regarding the making of vows.  God wants His children to DO what they SAY they will do.  He wants them to follow through with what they promise.  He wants our lives to display INTEGRITY.  (Numbers 28-30)

We will bear the responsibility of promises made to God and others.  How often we idly say what we desire to do, yet rarely follow through on what we say.  What have you promised God that you will do?  What have you promised your spouse that you will change?  Have you ever promised your children something that you reneged on?  What ministry have you committed yourself to do that you ended up dumping on someone else for your own selfish reasons? (Do your toes hurt yet?)

Several years ago, my husband and I committed to a pledge an amount of money in our church's building campaign.  It was to be paid over 3 years.  Trusting God to fulfill what He told us to do, we prayerfully were able to offer nine-tenths of it before we were called into ministry in another state.  We left our home and ministry, and moved, thinking all the while that we were "off the hook" for the final tenth.  We were a full year into our new ministry before the Lord brought conviction through the Word.  I opened the Bible that day and read this, "When you make a vow to God, do not be late in paying it, for He takes no delight in fools. Pay what you vow!  It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay." (Ecclesiastes 5: 4-5).

You can imagine my racing heart!  We had  assumed one of two things:  That our vow had been to our CHURCH and therefore able to be cancelled at our discretion, or that God really didn't care if we didn't keep our vow to Him.  Either way, we had assumed WRONGLY!

When we say that we are going to do something, it is our integrity that sees to it that it gets done.  When we don't follow through on what we say, we are showing God, others, and even the world sometimes, that we have no integrity.  In the cases where we do not "do as we say," it would have been far better for us to have kept our mouths shut!

Our vow to supply for the need of our church's building had been minimized the moment we moved.  But conviction in our hearts caused us to rethink what we had promised, what we had  vowed to God in faith.  We began to ask the Lord to bring to us the final tenth so that we could return it to Him, completing our vow.  He was utterly faithful; and we were faithful as well.  Never had such a burning conviction felt so good when it was removed from our shoulders.  Doing the right thing by following through on what we had vowed allowed us to step out of our foolishness and into wisdom!


Do you make promises that you never intend to keep?  Have you made some promises that you now realize you MUST keep?  Do the right thing.  Stop making false promises, and start keeping the ones you have made.  Your integrity is on the line.






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