RTW January 4

12 Comments

1. Happy New Year! A very busy house full kept me off the internet. Yes, I do want to be found faithful and trustworthy. Holy Spirit keep me on the straight and narrow.

   Psalm 119:27-32 New International Version (NIV)

   27 Cause me to understand the way of your precepts,
   that I may meditate on your wonderful deeds.
   28 My soul is weary with sorrow;
   strengthen me according to your word.
   29 Keep me from deceitful ways;
   be gracious to me and teach me your law.
   30 I have chosen the way of faithfulness;
   I have set my heart on your laws.
   31 I hold fast to your statutes, Lord;
   do not let me be put to shame.
   32 I run in the path of your commands,
   for you have broadened my understanding. ( Another version says “I will run the course of Your commandments, For You shall enlarge my heart.”

2. Something Old
   God had directed His people to disperse. In Genesis 11 He intervened in a dramatic way to ensure that outcome. It’s hard to understand why He sometimes steps in and sometimes stands back.

   Something New
   In Genesis 12 God asked Abram to “leave your country, your relatives, and your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you” physically and literally. I wonder if sometimes He does not ask the very same thing of us but in a spiritual sense. Because of my place in this life, I am surrounded with family members whose choices are absent His Divine direction. It leads to much sorrow and difficulty. While I deeply desire to be loving and close with my family it is often a challenge before me…..”leave…..go….and I will show you”. I do not mean physically or literally. But in my heart and in my spirit I must daily part ways with those around me who do not follow Him. It is wrenching. It is like a tightrope walk over a deep canyon. And yet it is the only way….the best way that I can actually stay and love…fully in His power, while remaining obedient.

   Something To Do

   Be sensitive to God’s leading that I might know when to stay and when to go and when to speak and when to remain silent.

3. I too want to be found faithful and trustworthy but unfortunately I am just getting my feet on the ground from a very big test…..but I failed badly. I turned away from my God and even blamed him for not being there in my greatest time of need. I doubted if He even cared or was just an absentee God. But thank you Lord…..you kept wispering to me reminding me you were still there waiting for me to turn back to you.

   Thank you again Wendy for this study. I am praying for a transforming year for me

   1. Dear rtorres, I can so much relate to what you are writing, I felt like that too. In my deepest darkest trial I blamed God for letting happen what happened. I literally almost died of the consequences of some very bad choices. I was not aware that I made choices that were very bad. In my own understanding I made choices that couldn’t be made any different. I never wanted to hurt anybody, I never wanted to be a rebelly-ish child towards God but I needed to choose how I chose. A very dark period came upon me and I suffered badly. I cried out to God and I wondered why He didn’t hear me. Why He didn’t intervene since that would not be such a big thing for God as He is famous for doing the impossible. I begged for answers and I didn’t get any. I then decided when God turns His back on me, I turn my back on God, from now on I will not have anything to do with Him anymore. Oh my.. I cringe if I think about how I thought and how I was absolutely convinced that I had the right to think how I thought. I am so grateful that God didn’t let go of me, even though I let go of Him. He kept surrounding me even though I couldn’t feel it or see it at that time. He showed Himself by sending people my way that spoke truth to me, in love, in a way I understood and in a way that was balm to my very sore soul. He brought books on my path that carried a message for me. I am a reader at heart and God knew that when I was not able to listen to Him, He could speak to me through what I was reading. It started with the book “Deadline” of Randy Alcorn, which a friend of mine gave me to read. She said it is a christian book but you like action books and this is a wonderful one. It started to chip away at the walls I had built up. I am so thankful now to be where I am now in life. I want you to know that God can handle people turning their back on Him. He sees the hearts of every single one and He knows how pain and sorrow can bring us down. He sees how desperate we are and He sees how sometimes we are struggling to just get through another day. He will never ever give up. He longs for every one of His children to be close to Him because He loves us that much. If we “fail” a test it doesn’t mean that He will fail us. We will fail every now and then. But the thing is, we learn. Maybe not directly and maybe we will take many roads before we see that we are on the wrong track and have to go back again. But every trial, every test, whether we fail it or not, will be a building block to our relationship with God. Maybe we cannot see it till after years and years but we will see it in the end. God is good, He loves you, He loves me, He hates to see us suffer but sometimes we have to go through stuff because otherwise we will never be ready for what is next to come. It all has to do with trust. It is good that we can be here in RTW, where we can build trust. By being in His word we will learn about truths and about many aspects of living a life with God. We can lift each other up in prayer and we can encourage each other, this is also something He does for His children. Two are better than one…. if one falls the other one can pick him up… I am happy to meet you here and I am glad that you are here and I will pray for you. Sending a big hug and love from Germany

      1. Your testimony and honesty are huge encouragements. Thank you, Saskia.

      2. Thank you so much for your reply saskia……your words and honesty have really ministered to my spirit. I need a group of godly women like this to help me though. so glad to be part of this and feel blessed to have new friends from all over the world!!!

4. My Take Aways:

   Who was Melchizedek? Anyone find verse 18 and19 in Chapter 14 interesting. “And Melchizedek, the KING of Salem and a PRIEST of God most high, brought out some BREAD and WINE. Melchizedek blessed Abram with his Blessing…” I have lots of questions about these verses. Why are they included? It must have grateful significance.

   Something Old:
   Abraham was a man of faith

   Something New:
   God ask Abraham to leave his family. He did not, he took his nephew. He didn’t follow God’s command. Is this because Lot’s father had died and now Abraham was responsible? I don’t know, so was Abraham really faithful?
   Abraham doesn’t stay in Canaan. He heads out to Egypt. Is this because he knew there was a famine and he was using the intelligence God gave him to get out of there before he starved, so he left Canaan? I don’t know, so was Abraham really faithful?
   Did God delay Abraham his blessings due to his unfaithfulness? Sarah was barren. There was a famine. Hagar was Sarah’s maid servant. Notice God doesn’t appear to Abraham until he goes back into the land, until he is separated from Lot. Then their fellowship returns. God is patient. He keeps his promises even when we aren’t faithful. He gives us time to make our wrongs right.

   Something To Do:
   When I stumble and fall I need to realize my mistakes and remember to come back to God, like Abraham did. If I want to have fellowship with God- I must remember to do it God’s way.

   1. Melchizedek’s appearance in the book of Genesis has mystified many scholars. It is clear that Abraham recognized him as a high ranking priest due great honor. (Thus he gives tithes to him). Melchizedek is at least a type of Christ throughout the scriptures. Some think he may have actually been a pre-incarnate Jesus Christ. Hebrews 7:3 tells us that he was “without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life….”.

      As to whether Abraham was fully faithful or obedient….It is my personal thought that perhaps, like with so many of us, his faithfulness and obedience came gradually and progressively. I believe Abraham was a work in progress. I’m so uplifted by that fact. So very many times I have failed God and felt like giving up, but He keeps bringing me back for another chance. Praise His Name! Your “something to do” says it so well!

      I love your thinking-out-loud-questions. They make me think. I need more of that.

      1. Thank you so much, jreed,for addressing my issues. I loved what you had to say. It really helped me. That’s what makes this study so great, the wisdom of the other participants. Thanks again for your reply.

5. I know the story of Hagar, but I’m not seeing any reference to her in today’s readings. Where are you all seeing this – or are you reading ahead, or just know how the story goes?

   1. Genesis 12:16 mention that Pharaoh gave Egypt “maidservants” as part of the riches he bestowed upon Abraham. I assumed that during this trip, Abraham acquired Hagar, who later became his slave-wife. Am I sure of this assumption? No. Just like I don’t know why Abraham took Lot with him. But I would like to think it was because his dad died and he took the responsibility of raising his nephew.

6. I loved this lesson! Proverbs 3:5-6 is also one of my favorite verses about trusting God and not leaning on my own understanding and God will direct my path. My something to do is to trust in God always even in the unknown of my life my future.

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