Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
Matthew 22:37-39
Within these scriptures we find out two tip priorities: A love of God and a love of others. These motivate us for a commitment to living our calling in the Lord.
Yesterday’s Devotion discussed Peter’s commitment to his calling and how he dropped it all after the Lord’s Death. But Jesus came back and asked him three times, do you love me more than these “things”? Ouch. How would we feel if the Lord comes to our door step and asks us the same?
Yesterday’s Devotion discussed Peter’s commitment to his calling and how he dropped it all after the Lord’s Death. But Jesus came back and asked him three times, do you love me more than these “things”? Ouch. How would we feel if the Lord comes to our door step and asks us the same?
Today, we will discuss Abraham.. lets get into it:
God promised Abraham: “And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered.” (Genesis 13:16) Yet when he was 100 years old and his wife Sara was 90, they still had not had their child (Genesis 17:17). But at the promise of God, Isaac was born (Genesis 21:5).
Later God said to Abraham, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering (Genesis 22:2) This child of their old age surely had become the object of their affections. He was the embodiment of God’s promise: “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Yet in total obedience to God’s command, “Abraham rose up early in the morning” and began the 3-day northward journey. As “Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son,” an Angel of the Lord said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” (Genesis 22:10,12). Who was central in Abraham’s heart, Isaac or God?
Now Abraham had everything—sheep, camels, a wife, Isaac, friends—but he possessed nothing. Abraham had become as Jesus later would teach: “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. (Matthew 16:24).
Later God said to Abraham, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering (Genesis 22:2) This child of their old age surely had become the object of their affections. He was the embodiment of God’s promise: “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Yet in total obedience to God’s command, “Abraham rose up early in the morning” and began the 3-day northward journey. As “Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son,” an Angel of the Lord said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” (Genesis 22:10,12). Who was central in Abraham’s heart, Isaac or God?
Now Abraham had everything—sheep, camels, a wife, Isaac, friends—but he possessed nothing. Abraham had become as Jesus later would teach: “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. (Matthew 16:24).
Excerpt from “the Ministry of Teaching” by David and Roberta Plake