Monday, Genesis 28:

Even after Jacob’s clear sin of deceiving his father, God chooses to continue His blessing, His lineage, His chosen people through him. I sit and think how undeserving I am of His grace, His son, His salvation.

Monday, Genesis 27:

It seems the very thing that Isaac and Rebekah prayed fervently for has become a cause of discord in their marriage. Isaac clearly doesn’t trust, or maybe has forgotten, the promise of the Lord that his older son would serve the younger and that the promise would continue through Jacob.

Monday, Genesis 26:

Look at how graciously God provides for Isaac! Isaac has a decision to make – there is a famine in his land. Will he go down to Egypt? Will he stay even though all seems bleak? God instructs him to stay.

Monday, Genesis 25

For 20 years, Isaac and Rebekah prayed for sons, and God answered their prayers and His promise to keep Abraham’s lineage going. But when their sons are finally granted to them, will they continue to believe in the promises of God? God reveals to Rebekah that the older one will serve the younger one, which was certainly a reversal of cultural expectations. Can they believe that God will indeed go before them?

Monday, Genesis 24

How often am I tempted to lower my standards, my expectation of what God will do because it just doesn’t seem possible? But Abraham is unflinching. Surely by now, he knows God will indeed provide exactly what he and his family need. Surely by now, I should, too.

Monday, Genesis 23:

Abraham calls himself a foreigner and a sojourner. Even after many years of living in Canaan, it isn’t fully “home.”

Abraham knows a greater truth, that he “looks forward to the city with foundations, “a city whose designer and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:9-10). And even as Abraham looks forward to his secure eternity, he lives in such a way that the people around him clearly see and know that he has a special relationship with God, that He has been set apart by Him.

Monday, Genesis 22:

I can’t ever read Genesis 22 without tearing up. Abraham’s obedience is astounding. So is His trust in God, and the certainty with which he says, “God will provide the lamb,” in the face of an unfathomable situation. I long for this kind of trust and certainty of who God is.

Monday, Genesis 21:

The Word says The Lord was gracious to Sarah to do what He had promised. Even when she is certain it will never happen – a son. And how much more gracious to us, to give us His Son, just as He promised! Just when we are tempted to despair, a well, a place of refreshment – Jesus.

Monday, Genesis 20:

God can use even seemingly strange and unlikely circumstances to bring glory to Himself and blessings to His people. God speaks to those who listen attentively to His voice, and He protects those who are seeking Him.

Monday, Genesis 19:

Lot’s heart to protect and serve strangers is evident as we begin this passage. Lot seems to believe the warning of the angels as he urges his sons-in-law to hurry and leave the city, and yet even he hesitates to actually obey their command. Then we have the ever-elusive verse about Lot’s wife. The text says she looked back – did she long for that old way of life? Did she yearn for the sin behind her?

It’s reassuring to know that God repeats His promises to Abraham. I need to be reminded of His promises again and again, even the ones I have memorized and know by heart. And even after God makes His promise clear a second time – you will have a son – Sarah laughs, struggling to believe it’s really true.

But, dear one, nothing is too hard for our God.

Can you even handle this grace? God always coming for us, always choosing us, always renaming us. Always giving us His promises. And in the renaming, God asks Abraham to mark himself, to set himself apart. And though not through circumcision, He asks it of us, too, to mark ourselves as His by the testimony of our love.