Wednesday 22 Feb 2023

February 22: Genesis 8:20-22

Key Verse: Genesis 8:22
‘As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.’

Devotion:
I don’t know about you but I love the smell of cooking; well, most cooking smells, but some are not nice. I know this is not what is happening here, but that is the first thing which came to mind when I read the passage. When we look at what was happening, we see something which is very endearing. Noah was told to take some of the animals and sacrifice them to God… What does that mean? Well it means they were taken away from Noah as a food source and given to God. Noah was putting His families needs as well as his own need aside and giving it all to God!

That is a big deal! How often do you take your livelihood and offer it to God? How often do you take things which you need to survive and give them to God? I do try to give things to God, but I don’t give everything like Noah was doing here. God wants us to be confident in giving things to Him and knowing we will still be looked after by Him. This doesn’t mean we give everything to God and wait to see if He feeds us! This means we give what He asks and know He will cover our needs!

This comes down to the same sort of thing where Satan tempted Jesus to throw Himself off the ledge to see if God would catch Him… We don’t tempt God. But if God asks us to do something, we do it! Abraham was asked by God to offer his son Isaac on Mount Moriah. Abraham was obedient and was doing exactly that when God turned the tables and gave him an offering to use instead of Isaac.

If we can be confident in our faith like Noah and Abraham, then we too will see the awesome grace and mercy of God as He gives us what we need to fulfil His requests. It’s all about faith in God and obedience to Him. Noah and Abraham are extremes for our sake so we can see God is always going to give us our needs!

Points to Ponder:
How often do you totally trust God?

Will you listen out for God’s calling?