Genesis 13:14-18
My husband and I both enjoy taking photographs, particularly when we go on holiday. It constantly amazes me that we can be in the same place at the same time yet, when we compare the pictures we took, they are often completely different. They show that even people standing next to each other see things very differently. In this passage God gives Abram a vision of his future that was very different from what anyone else would have seen.
The facts of the situation were these: Abram was an outsider, living a nomadic lifestyle in a land which was already occupied by a number of different tribes. What was more, he and his wife had no child of their own and, naturally speaking, the prospect of offspring looked extremely unlikely. I am sure Abram must have wondered at times what on earth he was doing there.
However, the Lord saw a very different picture and He wanted Abram to see that picture too. So, He told Abram to look at the land around him with the eyes of ownership. He promised that everything Abram could see would belong to him and his descendants one day. He then commanded Abram to start walking the land from north to south and east to west, in order to take spiritual possession of it. On the subject of descendants God said that he would give him descendants that were as numerous as the dust particles of the earth. Every time Abram wiped his dusty feet after a day’s walking he would be reminded of that promise.
What is God saying to you about your future? Just this week, when I was teaching a group about healing, a lady who has been suffering from chronic sickness suddenly realised that she had never seen herself having a long life. Her viewpoint was determined by what the doctors said to her, rather than by what God’s word says (e.g. in Proverbs 3:1). In order to walk by faith we need to see beyond our current circumstances and situations and start to envisage what God says about us .
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 “Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. [17] For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, [18] while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
What lens are you looking through as you consider your life? Many of us can quote the words of Jeremiah 29:11, which says God has “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (NIV), but do we really believe it?Are you seeing the circumstances of your life with your natural eyes, or with the eyes of faith?
Prayer
Lord God,
Please forgive me that I am so quick to listen to all the voices around me rather than to You. Help me to listen to You alone and to believe what You say about me, no matter what my current circumstances. Help me to start viewing my life the way You do, so that I do not miss the destiny You have prepared for me.
Amen.
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Comments
One response
This devotional hold a very important truth and that is where one choose to look. It’s easy to look at circumstances but faith doesn’t look at circumstances, it instead looks at what God says and sees! Thank you Jill for that reminder.