May 12 - Prayer, comments/questions - Verses

May 12

Heavenly Father, how often You guide me in ways I don't understand at all. There are times I can see what You are doing, but I must admit that most of the time I am totally blind to what You are doing in my life until I am 3 steps in, and even then, I just see a glimpse.

All I can do is rely on You to be my guide. I remember when my grandfather passed away, my dad preached his funeral and told a story of how when his father, who was a caretaker in the oil field of central Oklahoma, would walk around to check the fields at night and my dad would want to go along with him. Grandpa always took a light and reminded my dad to walk exactly where he himself had just walked so he would be on safe ground. There were snakes, wolves and other kinds of danger in those fields and grandpa had the light so he could see where it was safe to walk. Daddy would be obedient to his father and step just where his father had stepped and stayed safe. At Grandpa's funeral, Daddy shared that it wasn't until he was a young man that he looked back on that time and realized his obedience of following his father's footsteps not only kept him safe in those fields, but led him right to the cross of Jesus.

I thank You Father for a legacy where my wonderful, loving, and godly father had an example so he could be an example to me. I meet so many people who don't have that testimony and it so hurts my heart to hear of people who don't have loving fathers, or worse fathers who mean and cruel to their children. How difficult it must be for these children when they hear about You, a loving Father who gave up His only Son for them. How hard it must be to imagine a Heavenly Father who cares when they know nothing about a loving caring earthly Father. You are the perfect Father and everything a Father should be. I so wish all fathers would look to You to know what a father should be. How to love, how to care, how to raise children to love You and accept You.

Please help young fathers that know You to realize what a wonderful but difficult thing it is to be a father, at the father they should be. Help the young fathers who know You and love You remember to turn to You for guidance on how to be a father, and it all starts with loving You first and foremost. Loving You, knowing You, living in obedience to You, even when the picture You are drawing for them is hard to see and understand. You never steer me wrong Father, and I know that anyone who knows You, and recognizes Your voice, will know You and realize You will never steer them wrong either. To be brave for You, our Creator, our Strength, our Savior, and our Lord, is the ultimate gift to You.

Help me be brave for You, and obedient to You.

In Jesus' name.

Amen!

Why do you think God put Abram to sleep to make this covenant?

Not everything he promised Abram was something he probably wanted to hear. His descendants were going to spend many years as slaves and then as travelers looking for the promised land.

How would you feel if you were told your descendants would be salves and without a country for many generations?

God showed Abram how many descendants he would have by showing him the many stars in the sky. Do you think Abram was able to comprehend what God was going to do through him and his descendants?

Genesis 15:1-21

After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” 2 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?” 3 And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” 4 And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” 5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 6 And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

7 And he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.” 8 But he said, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” 9 He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10 And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half. 11 And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

12 As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. 13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. 14 But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. 15 As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. 16 And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. 18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, 19 the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”