Category: Devotions

Well … I have tried to do so throughout my life and it still is the constant prayer.

Abraham is known as the father of faith. He passed the test and God knew He feared Him.

How? It was this event, though very difficult for us to comprehend. At a time when many nations were involved in child sacrifice comes an unpalatable story of our own.

“By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, ¹⁸ even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” ¹⁹ Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.” (Hebrews 11 v 17-19)

Up to this point Abraham’s credentials to be the father of all nations was suspect.

A man more afraid than full of faith.

A man used to lying if needed rather than speaking the truth despite the consequences.

A man who couldn’t lead his own family very well.

A man who ‘Ishmaeled’ his Isaac taking things into his own hands instead of asking God.

Abraham had surely been tested and encouraging for us he failed quite a lot of the tests. Without the testing of faith what is left is only a feeling of faith, a wish, a desire to have. There is much of this faith around. But without testing there is a danger that this faith is little more than desire. How will the testing happen and what does it look like?

It is in what we will give up.

Will we let go of something precious to us?

Why is that important?

It is because it mirrors Him. God gave up His only Son for us.

Can we get to the place of saying, ‘not my will but yours be done’?

Sacrifice reveals the element of fantasy held within any faith story. Sacrifice keeps us selfless and makes sure that benefits from faith is not the motivation for faith. Sacrifice involves the now and what is precious to us now.

How could Abraham do what he did on Mount Moriah?

It was simply because there was no Abraham left. Who’s life was more important? Abraham’s, Isaac’s or God’s?

It is possible to build an image of God from within our own need and desires and not from the fact that He is far above; all omnipotent; an all powerful God tho desires that we totally surrender our lives to Him in love and worship.

Every one of us can pass the test if today we surrender once again and we give to God our all. It is sacrificial faith.

“All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. ¹⁴ People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. ¹⁵ If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. ¹⁶ Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.” (Hebrews 11 v 13-16)

All these people includes Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac and Jacob and so many more. The author is calling this community of believers to look back on those who have gone before them who persevered, who had faith, who trusted in God and who are now in a better place. So how can you turn back? That is the message. “If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.” So how can you now think about returning to Judaism?

This morning I am thinking of my friends and family members that have died. They were my heroes of the faith. The anniversary of the call ‘home’ is today for one of them.

When they died:

• v13- They were carrying the promises of God in their hearts. They had vision. So how much more should I also carry those promises and believe God for what is ahead? They trusted till death so I must also.
• v13-They were honest about their reality. They understood their present. This was not pie in the sky when they die. This was a conviction of their reality. They were agitators of their world. Provokers of people. They would not be moulded into something that wasn’t of God. They would not waste time on time-wasters. They did not fit in certain circles. So how much more should I simply trust God and not man?
• v14-They carried eternity in their hearts. They preached it. Their worldview was from an eternal lasting perspective. So how much more should I turn my eyes on Jesus and not on the things of this world?
• v15-They did not turn back because ahead was always better. So how much more should I stop thinking about what is behind me?

And finally and most importantly ….

• V16-That’s what happened when they died and they then met God who was not ashamed of them and led them into all that He had prepared for them in heaven, the eternal city of God. So how much more should I live my life knowing this will be my experience also?

When they died they began to live.

There’s an incredible poster of Taylor Knox, a surfer, in front of a huge wave (over fifty feet high!) at Todos Santos, Mexico. Underneath are the words, “What if your fears and dreams existed in the same place?”

“And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise. ¹² And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.” (Hebrews 11 v 11-12)

Abraham and Sarah lived in a tent. God’s promise was that she would have more children than anyone else, she would in fact birth a nation.

The little place in the corner of their tent was not going to be big enough. She would need to enlarge it greatly if it is to have room for all their descendants.

Pain is not bigger than purpose.

The enemy’s best plot against you is not bigger than God’s purpose for you.

Whatever you may be going through today could be described as a desert, a trial and it can even be past being possible.

But the truth is the truth even when you have reached your very end.

God has purposed for your life even when the circumstance doesn’t get better it gets worse.

God is near you even when the enemy seems large around you.

There is more!

Abraham had to convince Sarah that there was more but they had to move on this more.

There is more. Your experience of Jesus in the past, no matter how amazing, is just a part of what can be fully experienced. There is more. God hasn’t finished with you yet. 

Remember Exodus 15: 27 “Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there near the water.” We have a tendency to camp, to settle but there is more if we move! The numbers 12 and 70 indicate that this is indeed the perfect place but it was not their final destination. The supernatural provision of food happened only after Elim. So at Elim they were eating what they had brought out of Egypt. There was a diminishing supply of food. Yesterday’s provision was becoming mouldy. But as they moved the miracle came. Will you do it again Lord? There is more when you move.

Rob Parsons in his book “Let me tell you story” tells of a trip to the Middle East. “I spent a few minutes watching a camel owner offering rides to tourists. Giggling teenagers bounced along; ageing bodies held grimly on to the reins and to the delight of the watching crowd, one super cool thirty-something went flying over the beast’s head. But my main memory is that of a small boy. He could have been no more than 5 years old. A little earlier, his father had led him and his older sister over to see the camel at close quarters. The animal towered above them, occasionally showing teeth that made the wolf in Red Roding Hood look positively grumpy. The worldly-wise sibling, who was all of ten, had confidently stroked the camel, while her brother poked a hand out nervously towards it from his father’s back.

Now it was the big moment and he and his sister had the chance to ride the camel. The boy watched wide-eyed as his sister was lifted onto its back. As she began her short journey, he ran out from behind his father and waved at his sister laughing loudly. He was totally captivated, enjoying every moment, but then, as the camel turned to come back, I could see his small face change as an awful reality dawned on him; it was his turn next.

He ran straight back behind his father and no amount of cajoling from either the father or camel owner could get him anywhere near the animal. Finally, the dad gave up, paid for his daughter’s ride, took both children’s hands and started off down the street. And it was when they had gone ten metres that I saw something that moved me greatly; the small boy stopped, turned, looked wistfully back at the camel and then continued down the road. That look conveyed what he couldn’t say: “I desperately want to try … but I just can’t.”

I have seen that look so often in the eyes of not children, but adults. I have sometimes felt it in my own spirit. It is a look that glazes at an opportunity, that caresses a dream, that imagines a relationship, but is paralysed by fear.

One final thought, see the words, ‘And by faith even Sarah…’?

You may have failed, Sarah did. You may have laughed with cynicism, Sarah did. The point is you might not have trusted from the start but you can begin today! Fears and dreams sometimes exist in the same place.

It’s not that he was bored, impatient or dissatisfied and wanting to do something else. It is that he knew there was more. It had started with a vision and then a dream (Genesis 15). He encountered God and experienced something others hadn’t. He had a restless soul that had seen beyond the reality of the world around him. He did what we are called to do. To trust beyond the pain. When the reality doesn’t change still hold to the promise.

^“By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. ¹⁰ For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” (Hebrews 11v 9-10)

Abraham lived in tents, he didn’t settle down.

We can become content with what we have and how far we have come.

The call of the Spirit is to move.

Abraham lived 2,000 years before Christ and we live 2,000 years after Christ. Yet Abraham saw past us to see the same thing that John saw in Revelation 21 – a city coming down from heaven to earth – a God ordained world.

He was content to live in tents, a sign that he was looking for God’s fulfilment. He was believing for it to happen in his lifetime.

Faith seizes on a revealed event in the future and lives in anticipation of it.

There is always more of God. The Holy Spirit pioneers with us to receive more of God on our way towards the heavenly home.

Only in heaven will we be able to say we’ve arrived. Until then keep pioneering and we keep trusting.

Trusting in God doesn’t mean you know all the details. It is this:

“What are you going to do?”

            “I don’t know, but God has me.”

You may not know what tomorrow will bring but you are content to move forward into it knowing He who has the details will show you when it is needed.

“By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.” (Hebrews 11 v 8)

A simple verse but behind it (Genesis 11-12) is a man who had been experiencing grief. His brother, Haran had died in the family homeland of Ur. Sarai his wife was unable to conceive. The whole family had begun a journey to a better place to live but having arrived in Harran they settle there and do not move on and here his father, Terah, dies.

Grief and disappointment can be the catalysts to move but also to be not capable of moving anymore. How many times do we sadly hear a family say after an inquest to some reporter, ‘we request you leave us alone so we can move on’ or who are battling for justice after decades saying, ‘we haven’t been able to move on’.

Terah died neither in the place of his origin nor in the place of his dreams. He had let go but had not took hold. Many leave but some never arrive.

Strangely and sadly for him Terah passes through the place of his son’s name, Haran, the son who died. He cannot get past that place. He cannot move on. He had said goodbye to his son before and now he is stuck and cannot move away again. His grief and loss capture him and he dies there in Harran.

It is an incredible sad story all too prevalent today.

We must continue to do all we can to move on from hurt and loss.

It’s not how you start that is important as much as did you get to where you started out for? Was Harran worth it?
Harran proves you did move, you did set out.
Harran is along the way to where you are meant to be.
Harran has many qualities.
Haran satisfies enough to tempt you to remain in it.
But on your deathbed you will look into the eyes of your children and they will know whether you made it or whether you settled.
God still sends. So wherever you are today are you feeling the sending God behind you? Are you moving purposefully? Are you heading in the right direction? Are you still on mission?

Maybe you have failed to truly set out. Like Abraham for all kinds of reasons, family or otherwise, you settled. You obeyed but it was a halfway obedience. Looking back you see you didn’t obey fully. However, today, many things may have changed but you can still do what Abraham did, you can obey now, you can say YES to God now and give Him all of your life. You can trust in God. Even if you don’t know all the details you will not let your grief and loss hold you back any longer. This can be a new day of faith.

He did it not because he saw the need to do it.

He did it despite the ridicule of man.

He did it because God said to do it.

The ark.

“By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.” (Hebrews 11 v 7)

Noah built what he had never seen and waited for something to happen that had never happened before.

– Sometimes the new has to be uncharted territory.
– Waiting is part of the journey.
– Just because it hasn’t doesn’t mean it won’t.

The name means ‘rest’ and his father named him so in Genesis 5: 27 prophesying that, “He will comfort us in the labour and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the Lord has cursed.”

This is what the world was like: Genesis 6: 3, 5 “I can’t do this anymore, this has become too much.” What He actually said was, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.” ⁵ The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.”

This was a reset moment through Noah.

His trust in God ‘condemned the world’ no doubt referring to the direct opposite response to his faith, the scepticism and mockery of the world around him.

The ark was the symbol of the Saviour. Today we can hear the same words God said to Noah in Genesis 7:1 “Go into the ark”

Today GO into the safety of the relationship with the Saviour.

Let God shut you into His presence and the experience of Jesus.

When the floods come you will rise above the storm.

Everything around you may die, but you will live.

Everything may pass away but you will remain.

The landscape may change forever, but you will be constant.

And what will happen?

“But God remembered Noah” Genesis 8:1

After 150 days of the waters flooding the whole earth.

After 150 days of no change to outside circumstances.

150 days of trust.

150 days of silence from God.

150 days of not being in control.

We all go through such seasons of the soul.

BUT GOD will remember you and act for you. He will send a wind to push back that which is trying to take over your life. And the 2 words that will become all important you will carry for the rest of your life ….

BUT GOD! And these 2 words form the reason why we trust in God!

The whole purpose of our lives is to please God.

“By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” (Hebrews 11 v 5-6)

Without faith it is impossible …and so with faith we know we please Him. Not that we should please Him but that we are able to please Him. Let that occupy your mind. We, sinful as we are, failures as we are, can please a holy, righteous God. We may not please our boss or others but we can please Him!

This is a great joy to have the assurance that God is pleased with you.

Enoch pleased God. This is not a goal to be achieved. This is possible, how? By faith. By trusting in God. Then we are told where we put our trust exactly.

• We trust as we walk with Him.
  • Enoch walked with God and the result was that he was out of step with the world. He was in the world but not aligned to it.
  • Enoch walked with God and the result was God was happy to walk with Him and He still is longing to do so, Genesis 3:8; Leviticus 26:12.
• We trust that He exists.
  • This is to believe that God exists even when it looks like He doesn’t.
  • This is to believe God is with you when all around it appears He is not there.
• We trust and that is seen by us earnestly seeking Him.
  • We don’t seek the rewards (His hand) but we seek Him (His face).
  • When we seek Him we are saying that God is better than His best gifts.

He walked with God; he pleased God; he did not die; he was searched for but was not found.

Who is this?

“By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God.” (Hebrews 11 v 5)

He completed what Adam failed to do, he walked with God. He did what Noah had done and what Abraham would do. Enoch was I am sure walking by faith. But he was demonstrating an even more beautiful life, he was walking with God, an indicator of intimacy that God still wants from us today.

It was this intimacy that pleased God. Even more so because life was tough for someone walking with God. The environment Enoch lived in was one of sinfulness, arrogance and selfishness. But he walked with God. As was the same for Noah, he “was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God.” (Genesis 6:9)

His name means ‘dedicated’. At a time when values were totally broken down and everyone did their own thing, when families were divided and the order that had been created was in chaos, there was a man who dedicated his life and walked with God.

God ‘took’ the man who walked with Him. This was his reward. And whether we die on this earth or we are taken when He comes again, it is the reward for all who walk with Him.

The author wisely takes the believers back to the Old Testament in revealing characters who by their actions and words were looking for the New that was to come. The reason he does this is some believers had already returned to Judaism and the Pastor is showing that if you go back to that old system of works then you will discover in that history people displaying what they were called to live by now and that is of course faith.

So we start with Abel, the second son of Adam, he was a shepherd and his brother Cain was a farmer. They were both believers in God. One day Abel brought an offering to God and it was the firstborn of his best animals that he sacrificed. Cain brought vegetables that he had grown on his farm.

“By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.” (Hebrews 11 v 4)

This was not about animals being better than vegetables. It was about faith. Abel probably didn’t know what his offering was pointing towards. He hadn’t seen how everything in history points to the sacrifice of the Son of God on a cross. Neither had Cain either. They didn’t know about the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. But when these 2 offerings were given God accepted one and rejected the other. We do not know how this was known but maybe it was fire from heaven which generations later would become the norm within the Temple.

Cain brought the work of his hands as an offering. This approach still exists today. It did for the author writing to the community of believers who were being tempted to return to a works based system of worship, Judaism. For us, it still exists also. Cain put his trust in his own reasoning and his own efforts. He thought his work would impress God.

Abel offered his by faith. What does that mean? His was a blood sacrifice. His was a substitute sacrifice, it pointed to Christ of course. His offering had died in order to bring worship to God. This was not about Abel but it was about the animal. There was nothing in Abel that he could bring but his offering was acceptable because of the life in the blood of the sacrifice. Very early in history Abel had understood even in a basic form that approaching God something had to die.

The key point is this: we cannot approach God with our own efforts or in our own strength, but by the blood sacrifice of another. Don’t return to the Old Covenant, the New is far better, because it is fulfilled in the superior sacrifice of Jesus Christ, not by our own works. We never approach God by what we have done but through what He has done for us. This is why I trust in God and this is why Abel still speaks today.

There are some prayers we pray that ask God to take the mess of our lives and form a miracle. He does do that and there are many stories to prove it. But then there are some prayers when we have come to the very end of ourselves and we have nothing in our hands. We don’t have the resources or the know-how to change our situation. Do you know these kinds of prayers?

The author takes us back to the beginning.

“By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.” (Hebrews 11 v 3)

The universe. Yes let’s move from our problem, big that it might be for us, but compared to the universe not so much! It wasn’t there and then it was. There wasn’t matter that God took and formed it. There was nothing. He made from nothing. He formed it at His command, ‘Let there be light’.

You can trust in God because you believe in the beginning.

One word. That’s all it took. He had nothing in His hands.

So back to your problem and look at what is in your hands.

If you cannot see how then that’s okay. He can.