After a rough start, I can officially check day one off the list. I should know by now that making a commitment like this gets satan all out of whack, so that he then takes it out on me. Well try as he might, he did not win.
I listened to the reading on my phone by using You Version, and after dinner I sat down with a pen and journal to do the reading. I wanted to share a few of the things I jotted down.
-God CHOSE to create heaven and earth because He loves us and wants to fellowship with us.
-By placing the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the garden, God gave Adam a choice to obey God or not. Without the choice or free will, the obedience is hollow. We have to choose God. The simple disobedience of eating the fruit brought sin into the world, and their family when Cain killed Abel.Shortly thereafter, Lamech also kills a man.
-Noah was a man that fully loved and obeyed God when the rest of humanity didn’t. “Everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil.” Gen 6:5 NLT
-“So Noah did everything exactly as God commanded him.” That is stated twice, in verse 6:22 and again in 7:5. Can I say the same?
-Abram moved in faith when God called him to. God promised to bless him if he obeyed, and through the line of Abram, Jesus was born to save us.
-12:14 Abram lied to Pharaoh about Sarai because he lost faith in God to protect him, and he brought hardship upon them.
-King Melchizedek only ever appears in chapter 14, verses 17-20, yet it is obvious he loved God and he blessed Abram.
-Sarai showed her lack of faith when she gave Hagar to Abram. She had the opportunity to be patient and wait for God to move and give her a child but she took things in her own hands. Once Hagar was pregnant, she changed and Sarai took her frustrations out on her, so much so that Hagar ran away. I chuckled when Sarai looked to Abram for help in the situation and he told her, “look, she is your servant, so deal with her as you see fit.” The angel of the Lord told Hagar to return to Sarai and submit to her authority and he would bless her. I just thought of how I try to control situations sometimes and God still works in the mess that I make.
I would love to share these insights every day, but I’m not going to make a promise. The next two nights will be filled with Basketball games and practices. I enjoyed digging deeper into the reading today.
