Believing

DEVOTION

GENESIS

BELIEVING

Gen 15:1-6

15:1 After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward." 2 But Abram said, "O Sovereign LORD, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?" 3 And Abram said, "You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir." 4 Then the word of the LORD came to him: "This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir." 5 He took him outside and said, "Look up at the heavens and count the stars — if indeed you can count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be." 6 Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

NIV

It would appear God has spoken to Abram in other ways before this time. But now he speaks to him in a vision. To gaze upon mentally is the true meaning of the root word for this Hebrew word for vision. So it would seem he did not see an appearance or representation of God, but only had a mental vision, such as we do in dreams. This would have been very real, then again a vision could mean actually seeing someone. This we cannot be sure of as to the exact method in which Abram heard the voice of God. Nevertheless God assured Abram that he was his shield and his very great reward. As much as Abram has been following the direction of God, except of course with a few detours, like the trip to Egypt because of the famine. We saw how this demonstrated he could not trust God to provide in tough times, unless God had told him to go, but we are not told he did. So now that God tells him he is his shield and very great reward we see the response of Abram. He is not thinking about a spiritual reward, gaining eternal life, or being blessed spiritually at all. Abram is only concerned about the material life he now is living. Sure he calls him “O Sovereign Lord”, but then he asks, “What can you give me?” Abram’s thoughts run to his inheritance, his estate, all his wealth, his possessions. They will all go to a hired hand as he has no son to leave them to. Yet God assures him he will indeed leave all he has to a son born from his own being. Look at our lesson here. God wants Abram to know all the spiritual blessings he has and Abram can only think about the material things he has been given. Because he had raised his hand to the Lord God Most High we have to conclude he did recognize that it was God who bestowed all the material gain in his life. But that was not enough for Abram. He did not want to leave it to a hired hand. But God is a God who is concerned with every aspect of our lives. He assures Abram he will have a son to leave it all to. Here is where Abram starts to get the real picture, the true meaning of faith. Both he and his wife were already too old to have children. We will see this truth unfold further in the narrative of Abram’s life. But Abram already knew this was impossible in the natural and he could have said so, but he did not, at least at this time. We are simply told Abram believed God. This is truly a spiritual journey of Abram. He is learning more and more about trusting God and now he is told he will have a son in his old age and he believes that it will happen because the Lord has spoken to him about it. Does God speak to us about our lives? Most certainly he does. We have his words all recorded for us to read as much as we desire. We can read and reread and each time truths are revealed to us for our lives. The Lord not only speaks these truths into our heart and mind though his word, but also in visions, in dreams.

Acts 2:17-21

17 "'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions , your old men will dream dreams. 18 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. 19 I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. 20 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. 21 And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'  

NIV

We are in those last days because he has already poured out his Spirit on all people. It happened on that day in Pentecost couple thousand years ago. The Spirit is poured out and he dwells within us now. We get visions, we can actually hear the voice of the Lord, if we are listening. But the truth we also need to see here is that God was wanting Abram to see the very great reward he had in knowing God personally. This too should be the way we live, knowing our reward, our very great reward is knowing we are the children of God, he is our reward. In all reality that is all we will ever need. He is the only reward we will ever need, and should ever want. But as with Abram, we do live in this world and we do acquire a certain amount of material gain. For the most part we have been taught it is appropriate to store up enough so we can leave it behind for our children.  That seems to be a dominate concept of our culture, although there may be some exceptions. This was how Abram thought, this is how most of us think. God did not chastise Abram for being concerned about his inheritance, in fact, God reassured him it would be left to his son. So we could conclude that although God would have us be content with him being our reward, he also concerns himself with our material lives, assuring us he is also in control of that life. It comes down to the same response of Abram. We must, at all costs, believe God. Abram’s belief was counted or credited to him as righteousness. We have the same credit. Because we believe in Jesus as our Lord and Savior and he is our righteousness, our believing God has been credited to us as righteousness because we are in Christ. It all comes down to believing. We believe God, period, end of story. This means not doubting, no doubts.  We live a life of believing.