Are you striving to live blamelessly before God?

 6 Jan 26

Today's devotional: taken from YouVersion, Devotions on F.I.R.E. Year One


Readings:

Genesis 15

Genesis 16

Genesis 17

Matthew 5:27-48


Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:48). 


Are you striving to live blamelessly before God?


God makes an unconditional covenant with Abraham, which is shown by only God’s presence passing through the animal parts (Genesis 15:17). Yet the Lord has a standard He desires Abraham to uphold. The father of faith is ninety-nine years old, and God speaks to him: “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless” (Genesis 17:1). The adjective “blameless” is used for complete or healthy animals to be sacrificed to the Lord (Exodus 29:1; Leviticus 4:3). In both Exodus and Leviticus, the term is translated “without blemish.” We are to similarly live “blamelessly” and “without blemish.” Paul writes, “just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame [“without blemish”] before Him in love” (Ephesians 1:4). 


Employment Point: Live with integrity to match your heavenly calling.

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Reflections

While reading the passage, these verses stood out for me. “And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?” “I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered. Then the angel of the Lord told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.””Genesis‬ ‭16‬:‭8‬-‭9‬ ‭NIV‬‬


The Lord’s way of solving problems was never running away but facing it. And He dealt with everything in love, allowed to be trampled, misunderstood, spat on, beaten, etc. He realised that whatever He had been through had a purpose and His focus was just on that alone. Not on what people said, not on circumstances, not on feelings or emotions, but the sole and focus point in His life and the mission He is committed to fulfil.


Father Lord, may You also show us Your ways, reveal to us our destiny and what Your plans are for us. Help us to remain faithful and focused on You alone. Let not any waves and winds deter us from having that faith to walk on water. When our trust is in You, nothing is impossible. Thank You Father Lord. In Jesus’s name we ask and pray. Amen 🙏🏻

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Worship

BY OSWALD CHAMBERS

January 06


He . . . pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord. —Genesis 12:8


Bethel is the symbol of communion with God; Ai is the symbol of the world. Abraham pitched his tent between the two, knowing that the value of his public activity for God depended on the moments of profound private communion spent with him.
The two things—private worship and public work—went together in Abraham’s life, just as they did in the life of Christ. Too many of us think that in order to worship we have to drop out of our everyday lives, to flee Ai and go deep into Bethel, that quiet fortress where nothing and no one can disturb us.


This way of thinking may be a trap. There is always time to worship, no matter where we are or what we’re doing. Rush is wrong every time. Instead of jumping around like spiritual frogs, from working to waiting to worshipping, we should strive to live as Jesus did: unhurrying and unyielding, his entire existence an act of worship.
Worship is giving God the best he has given you. Be careful what you do with the best you have. If you try to keep a blessing for yourself, it will turn into spiritual rot, just as the manna rotted when the Israelites hoarded it (Exodus 16). Offer it back to God as a love gift, in a deliberate act of worship, and he will make it a blessing to others.


Genesis 16-17; Matthew 5:27-48


WISDOM FROM OSWALD

The message of the prophets is that although they have forsaken God, it has not altered God. The Apostle Paul emphasizes the same truth, that God remains God even when we are unfaithful (see 2 Timothy 2:13). Never interpret God as changing with our changes. He never does; there is no variableness in Him. 

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Reflections

I read this passage twice and the question I asked myself is what have I given as worship to the Lord? What gifts have I offered as a sacrifice to the altar? Did I mean every word when I was singing worship and praising him?


I think it is really easy to pay lip service. To just talk without action or to just live our life like a Christian but not as a Christian. 


Been chatting with two other friends and one shared that she has learnt to do some housekeeping with her friends. The ones who do not encourage her and yet kind of tried to discourage her from getting close to God. She mentioned that they are happy as they are, being Sunday Christians and to them attending church on Sundays mean they are Christian. They think anything else that my friend tries to do are considered churchy things. They didn’t really like it.


Worship is definitely more than singing. It is the giving of our lives to God. It is a full surrender of what is to be into His hands and let Him decide what is best, regardless whether we may be afraid or not wanting to go out of our comfort zones. I think in the end, so long as we are willing, nothing is too hard for the Lord and nothing is too hard for us too. 

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