What is the basis of your foundation?

 8 Jan 26

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


Readings:

Genesis 20

Genesis 21

Genesis 22

Matthew 7


Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock (Matthew 7:24). 


What is the basis of your foundation?


Abraham waits seemingly forever to bear a child through Sarah, and then God asks him to sacrifice Isaac. The elderly saint acts swiftly to obey the Lord because he knows that God will honor His promise and make him a father of a multitude - the literal meaning of “Abraham.” For this reason, Abraham tells his servants, “the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you” (Genesis 22:5). The writer of Hebrews documents Abraham’s faith, “concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead” (Hebrews 11:19). Let’s imitate Abraham of whom it is written, “and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform” (Romans 4:21). 


Employment Point: Build your life upon the foundation of God’s Word.

———————

Reflections

As with any building, we cannot run away from foundations. And how strong a building is largely depends on its foundations and how strong it was built. Similarly for our prayer and Christian life, we need a solid foundation so that our house can stand firm and not fall when winds blow.


If we learn from Abraham, we will believe every promise that the Lord has made to us. That He will be with us always, we will never be alone. He will go before us to prepare the table. He will guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. He will make our paths straight for His name’s sake, and many more.


Also like the song “Build my life”, the lyrics reminds us that we will build my life upon His love

It is a firm foundation. And we will put our trust in Him alone. And we will not be shaken. Amen to all that Father Lord, for Your promises to us. 🙏🏻✝️❤️

————————-

Does My Sacrifice Live?

BY OSWALD CHAMBERS

January 08


Abraham built an altar there and . . . bound his son Isaac. —Genesis 22:9


Abraham’s intentions in offering his son to God were good, but it was not the offering God wanted. “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” the angel of the Lord told Abraham. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son” (Genesis 22:12). God didn’t want Isaac’s death; he wanted Abraham’s life.


We make a version of Abraham’s mistake. We think that the ultimate thing God wants from us is the sacrifice of death. What God wants from us is the sacrifice through death that enables us to do what Jesus did: sacrifice our lives. The idea isn’t “I am willing to go to death with Jesus,” but “I am willing to be identified with Jesus’s death so that I may sacrifice my life to God.” Nowhere in Scripture does God ask us to give things up simply for the sake of giving them up. He asks us to give things up for the sake of the only thing worth having: a life with him.


God disciplined Abraham to show him the error of his belief, and the same discipline goes on in our lives. The goal is to loosen the ties that constrict the life of Christ in us, so that we can enter into a relationship with him. We may be challenged and disciplined until we finally understand: it is of no value to God to give him our lives for death. He wants us to be a living sacrifice, to let him have all our vibrant, vital powers. This is the offering that is acceptable to God.


Genesis 20-22; Matthew 6:19-34


WISDOM FROM OSWALD

If there is only one strand of faith amongst all the corruption within us, God will take hold of that one strand. 

———————

Reflections

It’s interesting to note that Oswald’s writing also coincide with the daily bible readings.


In Abraham’s faith, he recognised who God is and what His powers. He has 100% faith that both himself and his son Isaac will go back home. Either God will raise him up back from the dead or somehow, he trusted that the Lord will fulfil His promise. Because of this faith, he was willing to sacrifice his son in full obedience. He was willing to give up firstly his son Ishmael when Sarah asked to send them away and now he also obeyed God’s commands to sacrifice his son Isaac. 


The Lord tested him again and again as if He is not convinced. We know the vulnerability of men and how we can easily choose something else over God. However, Abraham chose something that was beyond human understanding. He chose God first. 


Are we more like Abraham or the far opposite of him? He chose the better option. Do we too, be willing to make the same choice when we are presented with such dilemmas?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Are you fulfilling your priestly role by holy living?

  2 Feb 26 Today's devotional: taken from YouVersion, Devotions on F.I.R.E. Year One Readings: Exodus 29 Exodus 30 Matthew 22:1-22 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people (1 Peter 2:9).  Are you fulfilling your priestly role by holy living? Moses receives directives from the Lord to sanctify Aaron and his sons for the priesthood. The Lord says to Moses, “And this is what you shall do to them to hallow them for ministering to Me as priests” (Exodus 29:1). Also, God previously chose Israel as a nation to serve Him in a priestly role. “And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:6). Whether Old Testament Israel, high priest, or a member of the church-age royal priesthood, God desires His people to separate from the moral contamination of this world’s system. Peter proclaims, “but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct” (1 Peter 1:15).  Employment Point:  Live acc...
Read more

How are you responding to Jesus’ hospitality as an honored guest?

  11 Feb 26 Today's devotional: taken from YouVersion, Devotions on F.I.R.E. Year One Readings: Leviticus 13 Matthew 26:20-54 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me (Revelation 3:20). How are you responding to Jesus’ hospitality as an honored guest? The triclinium is used for the Passover meal. It consists of three couches. Guests would recline with their left hand supporting their head while feeding themselves with their right hand. Traditionally the two most honored guests at the feast would recline on the right and left hand of the host. John, who reclines on the Lord’s breast, sits at Jesus’ right (John 13:23) and Judas on His left. When Jesus identifies His betrayer, no one hears but Judas, who is sitting next to Him (Matthew 26:25). John repays Jesus’ invitation for eternal life and intimacy by a lifetime of service; Judas betrays Him for thirty pieces of silver. Employment Po...
Read more

He said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” (John 6:5).

  16 May 26 Today's devotional: taken from YouVersion, Devotions on F.I.R.E. Year One Readings: 2 Kings 15 2 Kings 16 2 Kings 17 John 6:1-21 But this He said to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do (John 6:6).  He said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” (John 6:5). Jesus doesn’t ask the above question to Philip because He needs an answer; our Lord knows all things. The Good Shepherd’s question has a twofold effect: It shows the inability of men to meet the needs of mankind and displays the impossibility of feeding the vast multitude. Philip should have turned to Jesus and said, “For with God nothing will be impossible” (Luke 1:37). This is the first miracle the disciples participate in with the Lord. Amazingly, Jesus provides “as much [bread and fish] as they wanted” (John 6:11). The verb “they wanted” occurs in the imperfect tense, showing continual action in past time. Jesus also had “twelve baskets with the fragments” left over to feed the ...
Read more