TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL PASSAGE

DEVOTIONAL

by Sandra Chua

Do you need to pay for something you own?

God had promised Abraham both land, descendants, and a great name. The descendants were to be as many as the stars. The land is so wide that the Bible put it this way in Genesis 13:15: God said, “Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your descendants forever.”

After more than 20 years of waiting, we see only a glimmer of God’s promises being fulfilled. There was only Isaac, with no wife and, therefore, no grandchildren. Now the mother of supposedly many nations, Sarah was no more, too. He needed a place for burial. Isn’t all the land he was occupying supposed to be his?

Abraham had to ask for a burial site from among the Canaanites. We see from the response of the people that Abraham was respected. Verse 6 says he was a mighty prince among them. That looks promising as the tip of the iceberg of the great name God had promised. Although he was old and everything that God promised him was just beginning to unfold, we do not hear a single complaint. Abraham even buys the cave of Machpelah from Ephron at full price. Maybe he thought God made him rich so he would be able to buy the whole land. Abraham, with the same faith he had as he left his country, clings to the promises God had made. It didn’t matter how much of the promise had come to pass. He still believed in the God who made the promises. And this time, he did not try to help God fulfill it. He waits patiently.

REFLECTION

What do you do while waiting for God to fulfill His promise?

PRAYER