Faith
The Two Sides of Faith
24/01/11 07:01 Filed in: Devotions
Today I read Genesis 12-15. The story of Abram and the covenant God made with him is a great story. Here you have a guy that God chose to be the father of a nation through whom the Messiah would come. Abram wasn’t particularly special. He certainly wasn’t perfect as evidenced by his willingness to put his wife out there to save his own neck from the Pharaoh. He didn’t have any kind of status and was more of a wanderer and stranger in a strange land. He was one of the most unlikely people to be the father of a great nation since he didn’t have a son even in his old age.
Despite all the things that were against Abram being a great father of a great nation, the one thing Abram did have was faith. He had enough faith to start walking when God told him to move but didn’t tell him where he was going. He had enough faith to trust that God would take care of the issues between he and Lot by letting Lot take the best land. He had enough faith to not take all the possessions he had captured back in getting Lot and his family back and gave those things back to the King of Sodom knowing that God would take care of him and not wanting anyone else to get the credit. And he ultimately had faith to believe that God would somehow make him the father of a great nation despite all that was against him and God counted him righteous for doing so. What an incredible man he was.
Yet in the midst of all of that, our strengths can sometimes be the source of our sins in life. Here is this great man of faith who didn’t have enough faith that God could spare him from Pharaoh so he lies about his wife being his sister for fear of his own life. Crazy when you think about it. This was probably the easiest thing for God to do of all the things Abram believed yet he struggled to have faith in God’s protection in this one thing. This thing not only put his wife in jeopardy and who knows what happened if Pharaoh took her as his wife, it also probably caused deep pain and in their marriage. What is it about us that our source of greatest strength can sometimes be the source of our greatest weakness?
Lord, help me to be a man of faith like Abraham. You know I struggle at times with waiting for the plan to develop and in that struggle I can doubt and over think and process things. I am your servant Lord. Everything I have and everything I am is yours and I pray that my life will count for eternity. Please help me not to waste my life. Amen.
Despite all the things that were against Abram being a great father of a great nation, the one thing Abram did have was faith. He had enough faith to start walking when God told him to move but didn’t tell him where he was going. He had enough faith to trust that God would take care of the issues between he and Lot by letting Lot take the best land. He had enough faith to not take all the possessions he had captured back in getting Lot and his family back and gave those things back to the King of Sodom knowing that God would take care of him and not wanting anyone else to get the credit. And he ultimately had faith to believe that God would somehow make him the father of a great nation despite all that was against him and God counted him righteous for doing so. What an incredible man he was.
Yet in the midst of all of that, our strengths can sometimes be the source of our sins in life. Here is this great man of faith who didn’t have enough faith that God could spare him from Pharaoh so he lies about his wife being his sister for fear of his own life. Crazy when you think about it. This was probably the easiest thing for God to do of all the things Abram believed yet he struggled to have faith in God’s protection in this one thing. This thing not only put his wife in jeopardy and who knows what happened if Pharaoh took her as his wife, it also probably caused deep pain and in their marriage. What is it about us that our source of greatest strength can sometimes be the source of our greatest weakness?
Lord, help me to be a man of faith like Abraham. You know I struggle at times with waiting for the plan to develop and in that struggle I can doubt and over think and process things. I am your servant Lord. Everything I have and everything I am is yours and I pray that my life will count for eternity. Please help me not to waste my life. Amen.
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