Today's Devotional

June 8, 2005

Subject:  Presumptive Faith

Genesis 12:7 - 9 "And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.  And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the LORD, and called upon the name of the LORD.  And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the south."

The problem with some of us isn't that we don't hear God and follow Him.  It's that after we've heard Him and obeyed Him, we decide to "go further" than He told us.  Now Abraham was truly one of God's great men of faith.  That's what God's word tells us throughout several places in the New Testament.  However, Abraham experienced issues not uncommon to many of us today.  After God had told him that He would give him a certain land, Abraham said "thanks," built an altar and then "journeyed, going on still toward the south."  That was a lapse in obedience.  In journeying on, Abraham got more than he bargained for because it was Egypt, which is where he journeyed on to, where he picked up the "handmaiden" that was to bear Abraham his first son, Ishmael, in another act of less-than-perfect faith.

I do that particular Abraham-action more often than I'd probably like to admit.  I call it presumptive faith.  "Well if God said do this, then it must be okay for me to do this other thing also."  WRONG!!!  Like blatant disobedience, presumptive faith leads to circumstances not of God's choosing, but of our own and that's no way for a believer to live.  Abraham's presumptive faith continues to reverberate to this day around the world in many different ways.  All of that was because he decided that he would go to the land that God gave him and then "continue on..."  

Today If God says to you to go to "Canaan," don't just stop by "Canaan" on your way to "Egypt."  When God says go somewhere, just go there, stop and wait for further instructions before you get into something that you'll regret for a really long time. 

Carlen