Corona Devo 3154
Believe it today, Brothers and Sisters in Christ! Believe in God and trust what He has said. When we do, that's called faith, and our faith makes all the difference in our today.
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. ~Hebrews 11:1
Believe it today, Brothers and Sisters in Christ! What the Lord has spoken into our hearts is true, and is here...but only if we have the faith to believe it.
The good news is that even if our faith tends to teeter, we can be strengthened by those who have walked in faith before us. The Bible provides real people who had faith, and because they believed, we can read about their testimony today...and we can have the strength to believe because they did.
Noah built a boat that was one and half football fields long (merely) because God told him to. Scholars debate, but many believe that the earth in Noah's day had never experienced rain (as we know it today). And so, Noah built a boat on fierce and blind faith. We (too!) can have fierce and blind faith in what God has told us today. Believe it today, Brothers and Sisters in Christ!
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 11:7
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Even if what God is calling us to today is almost unfathomable, we can have faith that He will meet us in our walk of faith in living it out. Believe it today, Brothers and Sisters in Christ!
Abraham had one son and God told him to offer that son as a sacrifice to Him. Abraham obeyed immediately in taking action to obey God. The idea of (literally) sacrificing your child to God is unfathomable, but to Abraham, disobeying the Lord was even more unfathomable. Abraham had faith in God, even when he did not understand God.
Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”
(3) Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. (4) On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. (5) He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”
(6) Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, (7) Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?”
“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.
“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
(8) Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.
(9) When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. (10) Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. (11) But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
(12) “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
(13) Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram[a] caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. (14) So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”
(15) The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time (16) and said, “I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, (17) I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, (18) and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed,[c] because you have obeyed me.” ~Genesis 22:2-18
We can have faith today because others (like Abraham) had faith. And their faith became their testimony and our encouragement.
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 11:17-19
Abraham believed, and he had faith even when he couldn't possibly understand. Believe it today, Brothers and Sisters in Christ! Let's have faith in God and His plans, even when we don't understand.
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Our Lord has promised us good, but we will have to believe and walk out in faith to meet Him for it.
Believe it today, Brothers and Sisters in Christ!
I will bless this city and make it prosperous; I will satisfy its poor with food. (16) I will clothe its priests with godliness; its faithful servants will sing for joy. ~Psalm 132:15-16
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