Select a Ring of Truth daily devotion online
Ring of Truth provides 366 daily ‘proofs’ that the Bible is consistent throughout from Genesis to Revelation, and relevant for our lives today!
Select the date to display the devotion for:
Genesis 12:7
“The Lord appeared to Abram and said, ‘To your offspring I will give this land.’ So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.”
Abram, the Semite (the lineage of Shem) came to ‘the land of’ Canaan (out of the lineage of Ham) and God told him that He would give it to him, thus confirming Noah’s prophecy (or curse). “May Canaan be the slave of Shem” (Genesis 9:26).
Here, we are introduced to one of the most important and significant people of the Old Testament, and indeed of the whole Christian faith. He is the ancestor of both Jew and Arab, as we shall see later; but more than that, God made him a symbol, or example for us all (see John 8:31–40).
The Jews and, in particular, the Pharisees claimed the ability to trace their heritage all the way back to Abram but Jesus remarked that those who obeyed God and put their trust in Him were even more so Abram’s children.
Abram has done nothing so far to earn this special relationship with God. The first we learn of it was in Genesis 12:1 where he hears from God who tells him (just after his father’s death) to leave Haran and go where he is told and God will bless him beyond words.
Verse 4 says he up and went. Here we see again the blessing of obedience. Noah built an ark and was saved when everyone else died. Abram left and God blessed him above all others. It’s a ‘Ring of Truth’ throughout Scripture!
God, it seems, constantly wants to challenge our comfort zone. He wants us to be creative and be prepared to take risks at His request. He calls us to leave behind the known and the comfortable, and reach out for His protection, provision and promises.
Here God set a precedent, which Jesus repeated to His followers when He said, “Go and make disciples of all nations… And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:19–20; Mark 16:15).
If we are to receive the true blessings, which God wishes to give us, we also need to leave the past and predictable to launch out into our divine calling to share the Good News of the Gospel with those who have neither heard nor accepted it. Anything less is doomed to be, at best, second rate, bereft of true blessing and, at worst, under a curse like Canaan. Which correlates best with your life at this point? And why?
Tell me - has God appeared to you yet? To give you your specific divine ‘call’? If not, can I encourage you to set time aside very soon, if not today, so He can? He has one ‘tailor-made’ for you.
If you have received your ‘call’ –
1. Have you built your altar of remembrance and thanksgiving?
2. Are you continuing to be obedient to that ‘call’?
For that is where your life of blessing lies.
Download the above Ring of Truth devotion as a PDF.
Previous Day's Devotion | Next Day's Devotion
To subscribe to this daily devotion by email visit our Daily Email subscription page.
