Tag Archive | Abraham

Genesis 18

Oct15

Good morning y’all. Happy mid week 🙂
Today we in chapter 18 of Genesis. In this chapter we see Abraham entertain angels, Sarah doubt God’s promise, God responds by asking if there is anything to hard for him to do and God confiding in Abraham about his plans for Sodom and Gommorah

Be blessed 🙂

We need to be nice and hospitable to people for we never know they maybe sent from God to us. Scripture says some have entertained angels without knowing.
Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it! (‭Hebrews‬ ‭13‬:‭2‬ NLT)
Abraham in his case, entertained three men who I believe were Angels from God.

Abraham entertained the three men and while they were dining, one of them prophesied that Abraham and Sarah will have a son by this time next year. Sarah was eaves dropping and when she heard, she laughed. I must say it seems the couple just enjoy laughing a lot (Abraham laughed in the previous chapter too) no wonder God promised them a son named Isaac which means Laughter…lol.

Now let’s compare Sarahs response to the prophecy to Marys response when Angel came to tell her she has been chosen to birth our Lord Jesus Christ. Marys response was ‘be it unto me according to your word oh Lord’ – faith. Sarah on the other hand, laughed and tried to reason in her mind how this could be – doubt. Sometimes God’s promises to us won’t make sense to the natural man, in that they just seem so out of this world and impossible.

How are you respondong to Gods promises for you? Are you a Sarah or Mary? Remember, It’s not our job to figure out how God is going to do what He has promised, nah that’s God’s remit. Our job is to believe the promise, trust the one who made the promise and keep thanking him for the fulfilment of the promise. God still works miracles today!!!

Oh how I love verse 14- Is there anything to hard for the Lord to do? The answer is NONE. He may not do it the way we want him to but there is surely nothing too hard for him to do. In Isaiah 55:8-9, God says my ways are not your ways and my thoughts are not your thoughts. One thing is certain that God always comes through on his promises.

We need to trust His Sovereignty that He knows best as He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. He already knows how the story is going to end.
Psalms 62:11 -12a says: I heard God say two things: “I am powerful, and I am very kind.”(CEVUS06) and Jeremiah 29:11says: For I know the plans I have for you,” says the lord . “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope (NLT). I believe once we have the truth of these verses settled in our spirit, it will be easier to trust God and his plans when trials come our way.

Verse17 oh my oh my, I’m just amazed at this verse.
“Should I hide my plan from Abraham?” the lord asked. Genesis 18:17 NLT
Here is God the all powerful one asking whether to hide his plan regards Sodom and Gommorah from Abraham! I ask myself what has Abraham done to earn this kind of trust and relationship with God. Verse 18 and 19 gives us the answer.
“For Abraham will certainly become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him. I have singled him out so that he will direct his sons and their families to keep the way of the lord by doing what is right and just. Then I will do for Abraham all that I have promised.”Genesis 18:18-19 NLT
Abraham had a purpose to fulfill and that was to “direct his sons and families to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just”.
I came to the conclusion that as long as we are living and walking in the purpose of God for our lives, we too can enjoy the kind of relationship Abraham had with God.

Do we know our purpose for being here? We are not an accident or an explosion that just happened, we are Gods own creation created with a specific purpose in mind. Lets ask God to reveal that purpose to us.

God told Abraham about his plan for Sodom and Gommorah. Abraham reasoned with God and asked him why he would destroy the wicked along with the righteous. He started bargaining with God about how many righteous people if there are in the land will stop God from destroying the entire land. I am amazed because he bargained with God from 50 to 10 righteous people!. Dude was persistent in his request to God, humble and had reverential fear and God gave him an audience! This is amazing…like im trying to imagine myself and God discussing like that.(is it safe to say I’m jealous of Abraham right now 🙈. I so want that kind of deep intimacy with God as well :)).

One more thing I want to bring out from this chapter is the awareness of God’s presence. God was present from verse 1 all the way to verse 33. Are we aware of God’s presence around us and in us. V1 started with “the Lord appeared to Abraham” and verse 33 ended with “the Lord went his way”. Good news is God doesn’t go away anymore! He now dwells in us through the Holyspirit. How awesome, we are carriers of God. Lets live with the awareness that God is present and with us wherever we go.

Prayer:
Dear Lord we thank you for today. We thank you for your love toward us. Thank you for reminding us again that Nothing is too difficult for you to do. We ask for the grace to trust you more. We ask you reveal to us your purpose for our lives and help us walk and live in that purpose. We thank you for your presence that is alawyas with us. In Jesus Name. Amen

Thank you for joining today.

Have a blessed day and remember Nothing is to difficult for God 🙂

***With God all things are possible***

Genesis 17

Oct14

Good morning y’all. Today we in chapter 17 of Genesis. Interestingly there is a 13yr gap between this chapter and the previous one. We don’t know what happened to Abram in those 13yrs. Perhaps God was not pleased with him seeing as he doubted him and had a child by Hagar.

Let’s see what we can glean from the chapter. I pray Holyspirit enlightens us as we study 🙂

Verse 1 says: When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord  appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless.(NKJV). Here, God is reintroducing himself again to Abram as God Almighty after 13yrs of silence. Some translations say Sovereign God (NET) or All Powerful(CEVUS06) or El-Shaddai (NLT).  It’s like God is reminding him again that I call the shots and not you! He then gave him an instruction…He said walk before me and be blameless. This suggest to me that Abram in those 13yrs was not walking upright as God desired. Some translations interpret this as ‘obey me and always do right’ (CEVUS06 ), ‘serve me faithfully and live a blameless life’ (NLT ). To be blameless here means to be without fault. That is to do the right thing and no wrong is found in you. We know in previous chapter that Abram didn’t do the right thing by sleeping with Hagar. So here God was telling him as from now on if you obey me and do what’s right I will make my covenant with you. Obedience!!! again it is very important, if we want to enjoy God’s best for us. Like Abram God requires us to be obedient to his commands and do what is right.

What you are being called makes a difference. God changed Abrams name to Abraham. His old name was not in line with where God was taking him so God had to change his name so that his new name was a reflection of the promise. Abraham means father of many. This was in line with the covenant and promise God made to him. Truth is society gives us a name or label – ‘the fat one’, ‘the useless one’, ‘the skinny one’, ‘stupid’, ‘failure’, ‘ugly one’…Good news is we dont have to accept those name no more for we are now in Christ. We have a new name in Him. Today, lets ask God to open our eyes so we can begin to see ourselves as God sees us – the victorious one, the head and not the tail, the chosen one…

Covenant is an agreement between 2 or more parties. Each party has a responsibility in the agreement. When one party fails to abide by the terms and conditions of the covenant, the covenant becomes null and breached. Usually there are consequences when that happens. In this case God made a covenant with Abraham and his descendants. Abrahams part was to obey the terms -which was to make sure every male young and old was circumcised and going forward every male baby should be circumcised on the 8th day. As long as Abraham and his descendants obeyed the terms, the covenant stood. God is always on point to fulfill his side of the covenant. We know He never lies or fails. We are usually the ones holding God back due to our disobedience. I pray God will give us a heart that’s willing to obey at all times.

Abraham doubted God’s promise to give a son through Sarah. Biologically speaking it was highly impossible for Sarah to get pregnant. She was 90 and even Abraham was almost100…They were just too old. So Abraham laughed at the promise.  Abrahams doubt was so strong that he even asked God to let Ishmael be the promised child. God refused because indirectly that meant Abraham was trying to tell God that he is not able to bring his promise to pass, that he is a liar and not powerful enough even though earlier on God introduced himself as the All powerful Sovereign one. Abraham couldn’t believe because he was looking at his situation through the natural eye. But I thank God that he didn’t give up on Abraham rather God stood by his word and went on to tell Abraham when the promised child was going to be born and the name of the child.
Friends I don’t know what promise God has made to you that seems impossible today. Perhaps like Abraham the circumstances around you are telling you to forget the promise cos there is just no way it can happen. I’m begging you today to not give up on God. God is not a man that He would lie. Though the promise may tarry it will surely come to pass. God is the all powerful one. He can do anything he chooses to do, when he chooses to do it. Take your focus off the situation and put your focus on the one who is able to do exceedingly above all you can ask or imagine. Stay in faith and keep your hope alive and God will surely come through for you. If he did it for Abraham, He can do it for you too. He is the same God yesterday today and forever!  Be encouraged 🙂

Prayer:
Dear Lord we thank you for today. We thank you for loving us unconditionally.  We ask today you gave us a heart that is willing to obey you. For as many of us that are weary we ask you encourage us today and give us the grace to trust you more and believe in your promises. Thank you Lord. In Jesus Name. Amen.

Thank you for joining today.

Have a blessed day and let’s get to obeying and trusting God today 🙂

***With God all things are possible***