Thoughts from January 5 Bible Reading

January 5, 2018

Reading: Genesis 14-17; Matthew 5

The Old Testament reading for today covers a swath of the life of Abraham and the New Testament reading begins Jesus’ well-known Sermon on the Mount.  Again, there is so much to learn and to apply to our lives from these passages.  Our goal here is not a detailed study of each passage (though that is certainly a worthy pursuit).  Rather, our goal here is to help us think through some of the things that God is showing us in His Word to which we can personally respond.  So, again, these are devotional thoughts from the passage. 

Genesis 15:6 (CSB)

⁶Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

I believe that the defining characteristic of Abram’s (later Abraham) life was that he had faith in God, meaning he believed God.  God made big promises to Abram in Genesis 12 (go back and read them).  Yet, as time went by, it became clear to Abram that there was no way humanly possible for those promises to be fulfilled.  God had promised him that his descendants would become a great nation, that he would make his name great, and that he would bless all the peoples of the earth through him.  By the end of our reading, Abram was 100 years old and his wife was 90 (a little past child-bearing years), and yet they had no children to fulfill this promise.  Yet, Abram believed God and God credited righteousness to him because of His faith.

Ultimately, faith is hearing from God and believing what He says.  Faith is not some form positive thinking.  It is believing God and living your life according to what He says rather than according to what your intellect, your peers, or your world say.  Today, let us believe God rather than our feelings or logic.  Today, let us live according to what God says, rather than what we think.

Matthew 5:14–16 (CSB)

¹⁴“You are the light of the world. A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden.

¹⁵No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, but rather on a lampstand, and it gives light for all who are in the house.

¹⁶In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

So much in Matthew 5, what short devotional thought can I share???  Well, these three verses above struck me today.  Jesus tells us, as Christ-followers, that we are the light of the world and that we need to let our light shine before others so that they may see Christ in us and become worshipers of God. 

I don’t like it when people make a show of their religion and one of the things I want to guard against in my life is trying to make people think a particular way about me by acting religious in front of them.  (The fact that I am writing this to be read on the internet gives me pause.)  Yet, here Jesus tells us to let our lights shine before others, not to hide the fact that we are committed to Christ and living in His ways.  He wants to show others the glory of God through the lives of His people. 

Oh, Christian, if you do not show others by your life and tell others by your words who God is and what it means to know Christ and live for Him, who will?  There seems to be a growing ignorance about God and the things of God in our day, which is hard to believe in the information age.  Now, let’s not make a show of our religion trying to make people think well of us by doing spiritual things in front of them, but let’s live godly lives and talk to people about the God who created them, who loves them, and who wants them to know Him and His salvation.  Be a light today!