Week 8 Day 3
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 11:20 By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future. 21 By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons, and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff. 22 By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions about his bones. 23 By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict. 24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. 25 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. 26 He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. 27 By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible. 28 By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel. 29 By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned. 30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days. 31 By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.
Reflect:
Some of these acts of faith are epic: an entire nation narrowly escaping destruction by passing through a sea on dry land, or the walls of an enemy city falling down without any human help. But some of this feels normal, mundane. A father blessing his sons. Another giving burial instructions for his remains. Some seem shocking: a woman putting her child in a woven basket into a river, and a prostitute being used to accomplish God’s purposes. But the overall picture you get from this passage is that faith is woven into real life. There are times when faith is expressed in ways that defy human explanation and imagination; in those times what God is doing is obvious. There are other times when it takes the eyes of faith to see what God is doing. Faith is confidence in God. Confidence in God is expressed in distinct actions. You don’t have to feel confident to take faith steps. Faith is acting in a way that demonstrates you believe God is alive and that he is involved. Our faith demonstrates God’s faithfulness. We believe him and that “acted on” belief reveals God to others, and to ourselves. You may have the opportunity to demonstrate God’s faithfulness in some epic fashion. If you do, it will probably mean you are going through epic difficulty or suffering. Look again at the passage; there is a principle there. The more amazing the intervention of God in our lives, the more desperate the need was. Do not assume you will have epic intervention minus the epic struggle. However, it is more likely you will have many opportunities to demonstrate God’s faithfulness in multiple mundane ways. It will be the collective testimony of many days of faithfulness when God’s work in our lives will take faith to see because it will not be immediately obvious. Close the gap today: look for God, see what faith sees in the circumstances of your life today. If the struggle is great, look for what he might do in the midst of it to make his greatness known.
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.