Narrative Lectionary Key Verses for Today (Full text to place into context)
“After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, ‘Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.’ But Abram said, ‘O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?’ And Abram said, ‘You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir.’ But the word of the Lord came to him, ‘This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir.’ He brought him outside and said, ‘Look towards heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’ And he believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.”
NL Daily Devotion for Sunday, September 20, 2020
by Dr. Kimberly Leetch, Clergy Stuff
Main Idea: Often God’s promises are filled in surprising ways.
Although God promised Abram a son that would be the beginning of a great nation of descendants, Abram failed to see how God would keep that promise. In today’s story, Abram challenged God—how could God keep God’s promise when Abram remained childless and his only heir was not his own blood?
God patiently reassured Abram that God knew what God was doing and would make good on that promise. In a portion of the story not included today, Abram and Sarai try to circumvent God’s plan by giving Abram a child by Hagar, one of Sarai’s servants. Despite Abram and Sarai’s failure to trust that God would keep God’s promises, God remained faithful. God’s promise—that Abraham and Sarah would be the parents of a nation as numerous as the stars—would be carried out in God’s way and in God’s own time.
It can be hard to trust in God’s promises, or even that God is involved in our daily lives. We want and expect grand gestures, and we like to dictate how God’s desires or plans for our lives will be carried out. But God rarely does things the way we expect or hope. God is far more creative and surprising than we sometimes like to admit. Surprises on God’s level can be terrifying! We might think we are going to settle into our home and job, and then our job is gone, we must move, and we think God has failed to provide. We might plan to have children on our own schedule, but then we fail to become pregnant and we doubt God wants us to have kids. We might finally have an empty nest and look forward to retirement, and then a parent’s health fails, and we find ourselves in the sandwich generation.
All of these and more can be frustrating and scary. But who’s to say God isn’t behind it? Or at least, that God isn’t
in front of it? Just because our plans haven’t worked out the way we think they should, doesn’t mean God’s not involved or God has failed us. It might just be that God is waiting for just the right moment to reveal a delightful surprise. We find the new job and house are more fulfilling than we imagined. We foster or adopt and learn to love a child more than we ever thought possible. We welcome a parent into our home and the newly nurtured relationship helps us put the pieces of our childhood together in ways we couldn’t have imagined. God’s plans might not be our plans. But God’s promises (and surprises) are as numerous as the stars.
Do you ever get outside at nighttime to gaze at the stars? How many stars do you think are up there?
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