Category Archives: Devotion

THE LORD’S STRANGE DEMAND

Posted on

So the Lord said to him, “Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.”        Genesis 15:9 NIV

 

In response to Abram’s question, the Lord makes a strange demand. This demand served as a challenge to Abram’s faith. Let us be reminded that faith that isn’t tested isn’t really faith at all! The Lord’s request is for Abram to prepare a sacrifice. This whole event was how men in ancient times made a covenant with one another. They would cut animals in half and arrange the pieces several feet apart and walk between the pieces together. It symbolized the sacredness of a man’s word. It said, “May I be like one of these animals if I break my part of the covenant.” For Abram, it took a lot of costly, hard, bloody work to prepare these animals as the Lord wanted them to be. We need to remember that when the Lord makes a requirement of our lives, it will often require us to commit to some hard work on our part. The great things of the Lord do not come easy, they do not come cheap, nor do they come to the lazy. The Lord’s best is reserved for those who are willing to pay the price. What is that price? Prayer, holiness, separation, obedience, etc. Let us be reminded of Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 3:12-13, “If anyone builds on this foundation (Jesus Christ) using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light.” May our relationship with the Lord be built on that which will last for eternity.

 

PRAYER THOUGHT

Lord, Your sacrifice to us calls for us to be totally committed to You.

 

PRAYER FOR TODAY

Heavenly Father, You sacrificed Your only begotten Son, for our salvation, may we be just as committed to Your call upon our lives. AMEN

 

INTERNATIONAL BIBLE READING ASSOCIATION (IBRA)

Jonah 2:1-6

 

LISTEN TO TODAY’S DEVOTION

If you received our daily emails, please listen to today’s devotion on our website www.ffdl.co.za
On Facebook follow this link to start listening.

ABRAM’S RESPONSE

Posted on

But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?”        Genesis 15:8 NIV

 

Some have taken this question by Abram to be an expression of doubt. His question is not doubt but curiosity. He is merely asking the Lord for more information. All Abram wants to know is the process by which the Lord’s promise to him will find its fulfilment. His question is not one born of unbelief or doubt, but it is a desire for further information. Like Mary, when told by the angel Gabriel that she was to have a child, replied, ” How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” (Luke 1:34 NIV). This is not unbelief but wonder and an inquiry concerning the process. So is Abram’s question, and God answers him by saying, in effect, “Come along, Abram, and I will show the whole procedure to you. I will reveal the means by which you, through your descendants, will possess the land.” God doesn’t mind us asking for more information. It is doubt that bothers Him. Remember Zacharias in Luke 1:18, he asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man, and my wife is well along in years.” Zacharias’ doubt led him to be silenced until his son, John the Baptist was born. When we hear from the Lord, do we respond by asking for more information, or do we immediately begin to question the truth of what we have heard?

 

PRAYER THOUGHT

Lord, may we not be afraid to ask You for more information.

 

PRAYER FOR TODAY

As we hear from You, Lord, may we respond by asking for more information, and not to question the truth of what we have heard. AMEN

 

INTERNATIONAL BIBLE READING ASSOCIATION (IBRA)

1 Samuel 16:14-23

 

LISTEN TO TODAY’S DEVOTION

If you received our daily emails, please listen to today’s devotion on our website www.ffdl.co.za
On Facebook follow this link to start listening.

THE LORD’S REMINDER

Posted on

He also said to him, “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.”            Genesis 15:7 NIV

 

The Lord reminds Abram of who He is and what He is doing. Abram is also being reminded of Who he is dealing with. We tend to forget just Who is in control of the events of life. It would do us good to remember Whom we serve. He was here before anything, and He will be here after everything. He controls all things that happen in between. He is all-powerful. He is ever-present. He is all-knowing. He is in control of all of life. If we could ever get our souls around that truth, it would revolutionize our lives! Abram is reminded that he is where he is, because of the power of the Lord. Abram did nothing to get where he was, it was all the Lord’s doing. May we also be reminded that what we have, what we are and where we are, are all a product of the Lord’s work in our lives. Read 1 Corinthians 15:10. You name the area of your life, and you can count on the fact that it is all the Lord and not you! Abram is reminded that it was the Lord who brought him out so that He might give Abram a new land. The Lord’s purpose was to take this childless pilgrim and transform him into the father of a great nation. We need to be reminded that our Lord has a wonderful plan for our lives. Let us be careful not to hinder that plan, bringing pain and hardship upon ourselves. Our Lord’s plan is always a good, right and perfect plan.

 

PRAYER THOUGHT

Lord, may we be open to Your good, right and perfect plan for us.

 

PRAYER FOR TODAY

Thank You, Lord for the reminder that You have a wonderful plan for our lives. Help us to be careful not to hinder Your plan, bringing pain and hardship upon ourselves. AMEN

 

INTERNATIONAL BIBLE READING ASSOCIATION (IBRA)

Mark 5:1-20

 

LISTEN TO TODAY’S DEVOTION

If you received our daily emails, please listen to today’s devotion on our website www.ffdl.co.za
On Facebook follow this link to start listening.

STRONG FAITH

Posted on

“Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness.”         Genesis 15:6 NIV

 

What was it that made Abram’s faith so strong? The answer is that he did not look at the difficulty so much as he looked at the One who had promised. His eye was not resting on the problems, but upon the Promiser. When he saw the greatness of God, the might and majesty displayed before him on that oriental summer’s night, he said to himself, “It makes no difference how I feel, nor what may be the difficulties involved, the Creator of that multitude of stars is quite capable of giving me an equal number of descendants. So, we read the great sentence, “He believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness.” This does not mean that this was the first moment that Abram was counted righteous before the Lord. The book of Hebrews makes clear that when he left Ur of the Chaldees, in response to the Lord’s command, his obedient faith was also counted to him for righteousness. This incident under the stars is simply one instance out of many which illustrates the way in which God reckons righteousness to the person who believes. Abram believed the Lord about the promise of a coming son and was counted righteous. Today we are encouraged to believe in the Son, Jesus Christ. Cease from our own works and rest in helpless dependence upon Him, and we too are counted righteous. This act of faith must become an attitude of faith governing each moment of our lives. One is reminded of the following words: “Faith, mighty faith, the promise sees; And looks to God alone; Laughs at impossibilities; And cries, “It shall be done!“”

 

PRAYER THOUGHT

Lord, let our walk with You be one of faith and not sight.

 

PRAYER FOR TODAY

Lord, through the power of Your indwelling Holy Spirit, help us to look to You alone, to Your promises, to laugh at impossibilities and cry, “It shall be done.” AMEN

 

INTERNATIONAL BIBLE READING ASSOCIATION (IBRA)

Luke 8:1-3

 

LISTEN TO TODAY’S DEVOTION

If you received our daily emails, please listen to today’s devotion on our website www.ffdl.co.za
On Facebook follow this link to start listening.

ABRAM BELIEVED

Posted on

“Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness.”           Genesis 15:6 NIV

 

Now the last statement in this interesting paragraph in Genesis 15 comes before us. It concerns Abram’s faith. Paul refers to this mighty act of faith in Romans 4. He reminds us that Abraham believed God before he was circumcised, that is, before he had any continual guarantee that God would do this thing. The account of Abram’s circumcision comes a couple of chapters later. Paul infers from this that acceptance before God has nothing to do with circumcision, as the Jews were insisting. Paul says that when Abram heard God say, “So shall your descendants be” that he looked up into the stars, saw their vastness, their multitude, and he relaxed. Resting in faith upon the power of God. If we focus our view on Abram’s faith, we are going to miss the point of this whole matter. There is a sense in which we make far too much of these men of old and their faith. “What mighty men of faith,” we say; “how tremendous to believe the Lord against all the evidence of the circumstances around. If we only had faith like that, we could do the things they did!” Then we compare our feeble faith with theirs and try to work up a feeling of faith within us until we are turned into spiritual hypochondriacs, always going about taking our spiritual temperature and feeling our spiritual pulse. It is indeed true that when God saw Abram’s faith, He counted Abram as righteous in His sight. It is also true that when Abram saw the Lord, he believed Him able to perform what He had promised. He rested his faith on the Lord’s adequacy.

 

PRAYER THOUGHT

Lord, we rest our faith on Your total adequacy, not our own.

 

PRAYER FOR TODAY

Lord, thank You that like Abram, we can rest our faith on Your adequacy and nothing of our own abilities. AMEN

 

INTERNATIONAL BIBLE READING ASSOCIATION (IBRA)

Job 3:1-24

 

LISTEN TO TODAY’S DEVOTION

If you received our daily emails, please listen to today’s devotion on our website www.ffdl.co.za
On Facebook follow this link to start listening.

ONE REQUEST

Posted on

But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, what can You give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?”        Genesis 15:2 NIV

 

Abram has one request that lays heavily on his heart! Could the Lord fill that? In the intimacy of the moment, he simply poured out what was in his heart into the ear of his Almighty Friend. The Lord said, “Get up and come outside with me and look up to the night sky.” There the Lord gives Abram the promise. This is a great promise, out of the greatness of the Lord’s heart. It must surely have reassured and encouraged Abram. Each night to come, until the promise was fulfilled, he could look up into the starlit heavens and remind himself of the promise God had made. There is something of great interest here. The last time God had spoken to Abram about the birth of a son, He had promised him He would make his descendants like the dust of the earth. Now the promise is that they shall be like the stars of the heaven in multitude. Many Bible scholars have seen in this an inference that Abram would have two lines of descendants: an earthly seed and a heavenly one. The earthly seed would be the nation Israel, along with the Ishmaelite (Arabian) nations. But there would also be a heavenly or spiritual seed. That “Seed,” we are told in the book of Galatians, was Christ and all those who through faith in Him would be called the sons/daughters of God (See Galatians 3:7). As we look back over the time, we can see how the Lord has fulfilled these promises to the letter.

 

PRAYER THOUGHT

Lord, thank You, through our faith in Jesus, we are Your children.

 

PRAYER FOR TODAY

Lord, through our faith in Your Son, our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ, we have become Your children, and shown us how You have kept Your promise, which You gave to Abraham. AMEN

 

INTERNATIONAL BIBLE READING ASSOCIATION (IBRA)

Ecclesiastes 1:2-18

 

LISTEN TO TODAY’S DEVOTION

If you received our daily emails, please listen to today’s devotion on our website www.ffdl.co.za
On Facebook follow this link to start listening.

I AM YOUR SHIELD AND REWARD

Posted on

“Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.”        Genesis 15:1 NIV

 

This is what the Lord is saying to Abram, “I am your shield. Abram, a practical defence against any force that would destroy you. Fear not. Nothing shall touch you unless I permit it. Do not fear – I AM!” Have you noticed how many times in the New Testament our Lord Jesus calms His disciples with these words, “Fear not”? The ground of His reassurance is always that He is with them. When the storm threatens to overwhelm the little boat. When the cold fist of fear clutches their hearts as they sense the shadow of the Cross on their path. When Peter goes weeping bitterly out into the night; his words ring in their ears – “Fear not.” ” Do not let your hearts be troubled.” (John 14:1a NIV). Why? ” You believe in God; believe also in me!” (John 14:1b NIV). But God is more than a shield. He says also to Abram, “I am your very great reward.” Our Lord is our dearest treasure, the only genuinely satisfying joy we will ever know. The sense of the presence of God is a far richer experience of joy than anything else the human heart can find. This is what Abram experienced when the Lord said to him, “I am your shield, your very great reward.” We never again read of Abram worrying about Chedorlaomer or the loss of Sodom’s wealth. All these pressures from without were fully met by the sense of God’s presence with him, there in the dark. The same is true for us.

 

PRAYER THOUGHT

Lord, thank You for being our Shield and very great Reward.

 

PRAYER FOR TODAY

Lord, we give thanks that You have never changed. As You were Abram’s Shield and very great Reward, so You are to us in Christ Jesus, Your Son, our Saviour and Lord. AMEN

 

INTERNATIONAL BIBLE READING ASSOCIATION (IBRA)

Psalm 42:1-11

 

LISTEN TO TODAY’S DEVOTION

If you received our daily emails, please listen to today’s devotion on our website www.ffdl.co.za
On Facebook follow this link to start listening.

DO NOT BE AFRAID

Posted on

“Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.”         Genesis 15:1 NIV

 

To insist that life must maintain a steady, even keel at all costs, under every circumstance, is to thwart and miss the very purpose for which God sends difficulties into our lives. He only desires to create an atmosphere where he can manifest his glory. As Abram wrestles with his fears and doubts, there comes a sense of a presence with him. In his heart, he hears that mysterious word of the Lord. Sometimes the Lord spoke audibly to these Old Testament men, sometimes it was in the heart, with a quiet, deep conviction that God is speaking. Every Christian who has ever walked in fellowship with Jesus Christ for very long knows what I mean. We are not told how God spoke to Abram, but in the midst of his fear and doubt and loneliness there comes a sense of relief, and the word of the Lord says, ” Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.” Of course, the Lord is the answer! If He be for us. who can be against us? If He is our shield, whom should we fear? I love that verse in Hebrews because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.” (Hebrews 13:5b-6 NIV). “I am thy shield.” That is what comforted Abram’s heart there in the darkness. It was all he needed to settle his worries about the return of Chedorlaomer and the loss of his fortune in Sodom. Have we learned to count on the invisible protection of God?

 

PRAYER THOUGHT

Lord, thank You that You have not given us a spirit of fear.

 

PRAYER FOR TODAY

Lord, may we hear Your Word to us, during our fears and doubts. “Do not be afraid.” Thank You that we can count on Your invisible protection, as You gave it to Abram. AMEN

 

INTERNATIONAL BIBLE READING ASSOCIATION (IBRA)

Romans 10:14-21

 

LISTEN TO TODAY’S DEVOTION

If you received our daily emails, please listen to today’s devotion on our website www.ffdl.co.za
On Facebook follow this link to start listening.

FEAR

Posted on

“Do not be afraid, Abram.”            Genesis 15:1 NIV

 

The heart of Genesis 15 does not lie in its great phrases, however, but in its connection with the preceding events of Abram’s life. God appears to Abram in a vision, but when he comes, his first words are, “Fear not!” This reveals what is going on in Abram’s heart. He was having a sleepless night, and the trouble was that he was afraid. Coming, as this incident does, after Abram’s return from his battle with the four eastern kings and his encounter with the king of Sodom, we can see why he is so fearful. He is afraid of this man, Chedorlaomer, the great king whom he had conquered. Abram had publicly humiliated him by overthrowing his vast army with but a handful of men. Dictators do not take this kind of treatment lightly! We can easily understand the justified fear that Abram felt as he faced the possibility of Chedorlaomer’s return. Perhaps also there was fear because he had turned down the king of Sodom’s offer of a fortune. He did it, of course, in the strength of the fellowship he had enjoyed with Melchizedek. With his heart aflame with the love and grace of God, Abram had said to this king, “I want nothing of all that you have. I don’t want you saying that you made Abram rich.” Doubt begins to rise in his heart as to whether he did the right thing or not. Doubt is a form of fear! If all this sounds familiar to you, take comfort from the fact that it is a very natural reaction and all the great saints of God suffer from it.

 

PRAYER THOUGHT

Lord, thank You for knowing that we are not alone when afraid.

 

PRAYER FOR TODAY

Thank You Lord, that we are not alone when we have been afraid and filled with doubt, many saints have experienced this, and have been encouraged through Your Word. AMEN

 

INTERNATIONAL BIBLE READING ASSOCIATION (IBRA)

Romans 10:1-13

 

LISTEN TO TODAY’S DEVOTION

If you received our daily emails, please listen to today’s devotion on our website www.ffdl.co.za
On Facebook follow this link to start listening.

LAW OF FIRST OCCURENCE

Posted on

“After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision.”          Genesis 15:1 NIV

 

The opening paragraph of Genesis 15 strikingly illustrates for us what is commonly called in Bible study, the law of first occurrence. By this is meant that the first time a word or phrase is used in the Bible, it is used in such a way or in such a context as to highlight the basic meaning of it throughout the rest of Scripture. Four such phrases appear in this paragraph for the first time in the Bible, though they are repeated many, many times afterward. See if you can recognize them. Did you see the first one, in the very first line, “the word of the Lord came”? The recurrence of this phrase many times afterward in Scripture emphasizes the God-breathed character of the Bible. The word of the Lord came to many people, just as it came to Abram, and they wrote as they were borne along by the Holy Spirit, and then actually sat down and studied their own writings to learn what God had said, (1 Peter 1:10-12). The second phrase is the word that came to Abram, “Fear not!” How often this is God’s word to us, throughout this book. The third phrase is, “I am your shield.” In a thousand wonderful variations, we find this thought repeated frequently: God is our refuge and our strength; God is a tower of refuge; God is an overshadowing rock; blessed is the one that hides under the shadow of the Almighty. This is the first intimation of this character of God in Scripture. Then there is that familiar word in the last verse, “And he believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.”

 

PRAYER THOUGHT

Lord, thank You for Your Word that reveals Your amazing character.

 

PRAYER FOR TODAY

Lord, thank You for Your Word spoken to Abram, that continues to speak to us through the centuries, revealing Your amazing character. AMEN

 

INTERNATIONAL BIBLE READING ASSOCIATION (IBRA)

Romans 9:19-33

 

LISTEN TO TODAY’S DEVOTION

If you received our daily emails, please listen to today’s devotion on our website www.ffdl.co.za
On Facebook follow this link to start listening.