Skip to main content

Closing the Gap 1.30.18

By January 30, 2018Daily Devotional

Week 4 Day 2

Pray:

Ask God to reorient you to Himself. Confess any known sin. Thank Him for His forgiveness. Be still and reflect on Jesus and His sacrifice for you. Ask the Holy Spirit to open your heart and mind to God’s Word. Pray for others in your life that they, too, would know and love God today.

Read:

Hebrews 11:4 By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead. 5 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. 6 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.

Reflect:

We don’t know much about Enoch, but we know enough.  He walked with God.  It is interesting that he was able to escape the curse of Adam in that he skipped the dying process.  But what is most important is the reason that happened.  Adam walked with God in the Garden (or God walked with him), then he walked away from God and, in so doing, brought death.  Enoch walked with God and, in so doing, escaped death.  Clearly this is not God’s plan for very many people; most will go to God through death’s door.  But Enoch’s life instructs us on how to live reversing the curse.  We do so by walking with God.  Notice God commended him, too.  So we know three things about Enoch: he walked with God, he escaped the dying process, and God commended him.  We don’t know whether he was famous, handsome, athletic, had a lot of possessions, or was really smart.  Walking with God is another way of saying “walk by faith.”  To walk with God means to live in line with his will and his ways for your life.  It will require making choices that indicate you trust him and believe that he alive and able to accomplish his purposes.  It requires actions and attitudes that demonstrate your confidence that his ways are the best ways and life with him is the best possible life.  Enoch walked with God, but it is unlikely his walk was perfect.  It is more likely his walk was authentic.  In his heart and then on the whole in his life he walked God’s ways.  Why did he get to escape death?  Was he that much better than everyone else?  Maybe…we can’t say.  But his great escape was caused by the fact that he earned God’s commendation by the fact that he walked with God.  You will likely not get to skip the dying process, but if you walk in faith by believing the gospel, you will get to skip the curse of death.  That which is so fearful for much of humanity—death—has lost its sting for you if you are his child.  What matters most at the end, matters most now.  What will matter most at the end will be relationship with God, revealed in the relationships you have with others.  Since that will matter most at the end, it matters most now.  Right now, today.  Walk with God in faith, by walking alongside others in love.  You will probably still have to pass through death’s door someday, but death has already lost in your life.  And death will not have the final word in your death; life will.  Close the gap, live by faith today with the end in mind.

Pray:

(Personalize this prayer today; make it specific to the circumstances that face you.)

Ask God to lead you through His Spirit as you go through your day. Ask Him to bring to mind the truth of the gospel and its implications for what you will encounter today. Tell Him “Yes” to His will and ask Him for His power and protection to live this “yes.” Ask God to create and reveal opportunities to proclaim the good news today.

 

Leave a Reply