“Then He [the Lord] brought him [Abram] outside and said, ‘Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.’ And He said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’” And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.” “On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram.” [1]
Recently, God is graciously granting me a strong sense of His presence. I wake up thinking of Him as the God who created the heavens and the earth. I imagine the stars and know that He made them and sustains them all.
This morning, I stopped to think about this. Then, it came to me to look up the passage where God brought Abram out at and night and told him to look towards heaven. The Lord told Abram that his descendants would be beyond counting just like the stars. Abram believed God. God counted Abram’s faith as righteousness. Then, the Lord made a covenant with Abram.
How amazing that the God who created the heavens and earth would consider me worthy of His presence! King David wrote, “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?” [2]
When I was young, I felt that the only way to my earthly father’s heart was obedience and a high level of performance. At times, I tried to arise to that expectation, and at other times, I stopped trying altogether. How does one win the heart of a perfect and almighty God?
Who did Jesus focus on during His earthly ministry? Was it the high achievers? Was it the rich and famous?
Jesus focused on people with incomplete bodies like the blind, the lame, the mute, the deaf, the diseased (lepers) and the beggar. Like God Almighty showing Abram the stars, our Lord Jesus reached out to people with grace and miracle power. This is the God I need. One whose might is great enough to overcome my weakness. One whose grace is great enough to fill the achievement gaps in my life. He has been and is this to me.
Finally, my Heavenly Father said to me, “So, you see son, when you give your strength and show grace to those who cannot repay you, you are doing as I do.”
Jesus taught, “I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”
“Thank You Heavenly Father for being close to me though I can never earn or deserve Your attention and Your love. Thank You that You love and help me daily despite the many ways in which I fall short of Your glory. Help me to love others as You love me. This I pray in the Name of Jesus Your Son. Amen.”
[1] Genesis 15:5-6, 18
[2] Psalm 8:3-4
[3] Matthew 5:44-48
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