Thirsty Thursday: Post 7

So...I've decided that I cannot start these with week __. Primarily because I rarely have the time to actually write them every week. So I'm going to call them post __ and try my hardest to write one each week, but not repeatedly kick myself over not posting it.

Today, we're going to discover God's plan to redeem his people. Since the original plan didn't work out, we knew that He had to have another plan. So let's take a look at Genesis 17 and see what God wants to reveal to us today.

Chapter 17 starts with God appearing to Abram. God immediately give him a command. He said to Abram,

"Walk before me and be blameless. I will confirm my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers." (Vs 1-2)

Notice God doesn't say try to be blameless, he just says do it. Those two words are probably most hated in our society. We always want to ask the whys, the hows, the is it possibles? We often fail to realize that when we're told to do it, it means simply that. Do. If we are faithful to follow, He is faithful and will uphold His end of it.

Abram knows well enough that when God speaks, you react. Abram chose to fall down in reverence to God. It was at this point that God takes the opportunity to change Abram's name...Sarai's too.

Abram is defined as exalted father. His new name Abraham means father of many. God explains to Abraham that his new name will be fully lived up to. Now, at the age of 99, Abram found himself laughing at the thought. I mean, really, would your reaction be any different?

He was also informed that his wife's name would no longer be Sarai. Her name would then be Sarah. For she would be the mother of nations.

These new names were to serve as a personal symbol of God's promise to make them parents of a great nation, the parents of all mankind from then forward. The external/visible sign was to be circumcision.

Verse 23 shows Abraham's immediate response. The very SAME day he took all the males in his household and had them circumcised--including himself. I can feel all the men reading this wince simultaneously.

While Abraham still had his doubts about the idea of having a child at his age, his faith in God to keep his promises was strong enough that it compelled him into action when God made a request.

The challenge for us in all of this is to show similar faith as Abraham does here. Even if the call doesn't make sense to us, we should find our faith and trust in God strong enough that we take the step anyway.

How about you? What would faith like Abraham's look like in your life? Are you willing to put that faith into action? If not, what might be stopping you, would you share that we might pray with you?