Many of us have made promises in our lives that we haven’t kept. And many of us have remembered when others have made promises to us that they haven’t kept.
What’s nice is when God makes a promise to us, we can count on it. One of the things about God is that he cannot lie. When God makes a promise that has legal implications, it’s a covenant.
I’ve thought a lot about what it means to have my heart circumcised by God. And so I went back to where it all started with Abraham. And in Genesis 17, we see that Abraham was 99 years old when the Lord appeared to him. God tells Him that he needs to walk before him and be blameless. And that God wants to make a covenant between him and God. And it was specifically that He was going to multiply him and create a large family, but it was to create descendants that were so numerous that he would be the father of many nations.
And God changed his name from Abram to Abraham.
It’s interesting because during this time, being able to procreate to have families and continue on, the time, really of just trying to survive, this was the blessing and as I thought about it, even today, it’s still the number one blessing that people want. People want to be able to have a family. They want to pass on what they have learned, what they have generated, what they have gained.
And it’s truly the greatest honor to be able to have children. To raise them up. Even though they are gifts from God, and they don’t really belong to us.
And there’s something that drives us in our DNA about it.
The interesting thing about this section in Genesis 17 is that God said this specifically, he said, “Your responsibility is to obey the terms of the covenant. You and all your descendants have the continual responsibility. This is the covenant that you and your descendants must keep. Each male among you must be circumcised. You must cut off the flesh of your foreskin. As a sign of the covenant between Me and you.”
A Prayer For Today
Let’s pray for a second.
Lord God, I want to thank You for today. I want to thank You, God that You have created us to be Your children. I thank You for the opportunities, Lord, to grow each day. I asked, Lord, that we would understand and receive revelation of You, Jesus. So that we would understand exactly who You are and what You have done. That we may be able to live in that grace and that freedom that You have provided for us by taking us out of our sins. By dying and being our sacrifice. Being that atonement, Lord.
Thank You for the opportunity to speak to whoever’s listening today. And I ask God, You’ll keep me behind Your cross. In Jesus’ name, amen.
The Flesh In Submission
Abraham was called to do something that’s quite extreme. And it was a way of making sure that there was a cost. And something that was meaningful in the covenant. And it was a cutting away of, of flesh. A part of us. But more importantly, it was that reminder of how the flesh needs to be placed, in submission.
And put in its place.