RTW January 8
Peace in the Family
There they lived in open hostility toward all their relatives.
Genesis 25:18b
My Takeaways
Something Old
Today is the day to praise God and to pray for your genealogy. Those who around you in these days, and those who will come behind you in later days.
- I pray that faithfulness can be found when my family line is one day traced.
- I pray for peace for the future generations, and for those who are now living.
- I pray that my family, both now and in the future, will love You and love each other.
- I praise You for the faithfulness of those who have raised me, for those who raised those who raised me, for the trouble and disappointment they faced, because those times taught them to trust You, and that heritage of faith that was passed on to me.
Something New
I wonder why there was so much infertility in the Old Testament.
Something to Do
Praise God and pray for my family.
Wow-what a difference a year makes! If I had listened to this lesson a year ago it would’ve been with a different lens -One of hopelessness, doubt, anger and bitterness. But not anymore as I have seen God‘s faithfulness in my own family. I was struck by the contrast of Ishmael‘s descendants living in open hostility Toward their relatives and Isaac and Ishmael coming together to bury Abraham. Even after Abraham and Sarah died the hostility continued – that’s how I interpret it. This hits very close to home with my family, but I’m so thankful that that is not what happened for us.
My siblings and I lived in open hostility toward each other for years-especially around the care of my aging mom. We lost my mom just about a year ago and, quite honestly I was looking forward to being rid of them. There was nothing else holding us together now that mom was gone-BUT GOD!!! Very long story short, the healing began at the funeral (oh and I lost one if my sisters to drug addiction 2 weeks after we buried my mom!). It truly was supernatural as holy spirit began showing me what needed to change in me. I stopped looking at them as the enemy and he truly gave me new lenses to see them. I drew near to them instead of pulling away. I brought peace and comfort.
Today we are all growing in a new relationship as a family-some of them aren’t saved so I am praying for that for them but I am so overwhelmed at God‘s faithfulness that I have no doubt they will be joining me in my walk of faith with Jesus.
My family is currently shattered….I do pray for restoration on a continual basis….its the waiting……hard stuff….
Today we see Isaac and Rebekah had to wait 20 years for the twins.
God’s promises require waiting.
I have a choice as to how I wait.
What appears logical is not always God.
Will I choose to remain faithful in my waiting??
Today’s reading was short but God showed me 2 things.
1. Abraham Remarried….I figured he was around 150 yrs old when that occurred. They had 6 kids together. Isaac still got all Abrahams inheritance. Made me wonder if Abraham was supposed to remarry or if he stepped out of God’s plan there.
2. When the twins were fighting inside of Rebekah her first action was to ask the Lord about it. I love that example of prayer and seeking the lord about every little or big thing.
I thought about Abraham and his marriage to Keturah today too. I was a little confused about their relationship. Gen 25 says Keturah was a wife but 1Chronicles says she was a concubine. Abraham married her sometime after Sarah’s death so I wouldn’t think that would have been a problem.
Love your insights ladies! First of all I turned the page and went, what? Short reading. I saw two promises fulfilled. From Wendy’s key verse it was a fulfillment of Genesis 16:12c and then Abraham’s death 25:8 a is the fulfillment of Genesis 15:15 God is faithful to His promises, all of them! Be encouraged in this day
Years ago, my cousin, Debby, and I decided to pray for another cousin, Linda. None of us were raised in believing families, but Debbie and I came to faith after and during college. Linda was probably our wildest cousin!
Within a couple of years she had given her life to the Lord, went on the mission field and still now is involved with a Mission ministry with her husband. God answers prayers! And we have seen several others come to the Lord over the years..
I was struggling to come up with a Something to Do for today. I really like Wendy’s thoughts on being thankful for those who have come before me and to pray and praise God for my family.
I never really noticed that Abraham had another wife/concubine, Keturah. It made me wonder how he had children with her after Sarah’s death when he was such an old man. If he was with Keturah during Sarah’s lifetime, I think that would be recorded, since she was so jealous of Hagar, and Ishmael was the only other son when Isaac was born. It really made me think.
Wow, today’s reading was short indeed. Abraham died, but what a legacy he left behind. He is the perfect example of how life should be. Having a personal relationship with God and honoring Him on earth was his one and only desire. Through faithfulness and obedience he demonstrated the true meaning of life for his family and those who lived around him. What many treasures I have waiting for me by applying the life of Abraham to my own. I want to leave a legecy like Abraham. I want my life to go along with the life that God has in store for me. When my desires and ambitions are simplified and when I fall in line with the will of God, His purposes become my purposes and after all -isn’t that what life is all about?
” And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.” (Colossians 3:17)
This was beautifully put!
I was surprised at the short reading when I turned the page also. Today was a big one for me. God also brought the same lesson to me as He did Wendy. I am going to condense this as much as I can. The whole reading reminded me of family, specifically my husbands side (my in laws). “There they lived in open hostility toward all their relatives.”
Then the verse stuck out to me Issac pleaded with the Lord in behalf of his wife.
Gen 25:21
The Lord answered Issac’s prayer it says.
This reminded me that I need to plead with the Lord in prayer for my husband. I used to pray for him daily and consistently. I’ve been saying to myself that I will start again but I haven’t. I keep procrastinating about it. I’m not pleading to God for him. My primary ministry is my husband. God wants me to be in prayer on Chris’s behalf. And esp right now. He is a first responder and is going through a lot, has a lot of unresolved family hurt and a past that he wont really deal with. Just last night he told me he had bad anxiety out of nowhere. So I connected the 2 verses. There is a lot of hostility between his dad, brother, stepfather and it’s a big mess. It hit me that God wants me to be praying about it all. To pray for him and all the discord in his family, and in my own family with my parents. Neither one of us had a great childhood. God showed me that it is with Chris and I that He is breaking the generational curse.
So to hear Wendy say that exact thing just really gave me confirmation that God was speaking so clearly to me.
It is my duty as a wife to intercede for my husband. If not me, then who else would do it? I need to stand in the gap for him daily. I believe it’s an answer to yesterday’s lesson where I prayed and asked God to show me where I am in disobedience to Him. Then God took me to this verse in the message version:
“As for me, I will call upon God, and the Lord shall save me (us). Evening and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud (for my husband and my marriage) and He shall hear my voice. He has redeemed my (our) souls in peace from the battle that was against us.
Psalm 55:16-18
I ended up praying for him, for our entire family and the salvation of them all. I’m really grateful that God has used so many of the lessons so far to point me to my marriage and ways I need to obey and respond.
This verse that Isaac pleaded for his wife jumped out to me too!
Praying for my husband, kids and grandkids! Pleading… begging for their hearts and desires to be consumed by the fathers love. ❤️
Hello all. My To Do is to thank God for my family. Today, specifically, thankful for my mom. I am who I am because of her. I was blessed to have her as a mother. This past Saturday was the fourth anniversary of her passing. I miss her so much! I pray that I will be such a blessing to my two children. I want my mom’s legacy to continue. Thank you God for my family!
I know this may be a strong word for some but we must realize, God has dysfunctional kids, yes, even Abraham. Having sex with Hagar was not God’s perfect will, it clouded the promise God gave him, in fact it was disobedience.
“During the reign of King David, the Ishmaelites (Ishmael’s descendants) joined a confederacy against God and against His people, Israel (Psalm 83:5–6). Their goal was to “destroy them as a nation, / so that Israel’s name is remembered no more” (verse 4). Considering the current turmoil in the Middle East and the hatred often directed against Israel by her neighbors, the prophecies concerning the descendants of Ishmael continue to prove true.”
God’s perfect will is one husband one wife! Abraham strayed marrying Keturah “one” of his “concubines”, he had many, in Genesis 25: 5-6, turning his heart from God. Guilty as charged “but before he died……he sent the sons of his concubines off to a land in the east away from Isaac”. The turmoil and hatred was very prevalent within camp, the concubines sons were NOT sons of promise like Isaac, they knew this, concerned for Isaac’s safety, they were sent away, why else would he send them off to the east.
Being a student of the word, and throughout scripture, you will find many of God’s kids were dysfunctional. They lived in real time and learned lessons throughout their journeys, we have the privilege to read God’s story, God wants us to learn lessons from their errors and grow in maturity.