New Beginnings, Day 16 False start. Read Genesis chapter 16. I enjoy running track in my spare time. Whenever I’m in a race, I cannot start the race until the starter shoots the starting pistol. If I do, it’s a false start and I am disqualified. God had told Abraham his grand plan for him. He had probably shared that plan with his wife. However, they decided that they could figure out how to work that plan on their own. Abram false started. How many times have we understood God’s plan for us, but not the timing. We get carried away and end up taking off early. We false start.…

New Beginnings, Day 15 Abram believed. Read Genesis chapter 15. We have read so much of Abram’s story already, it’s interesting to realize that this is truly the first time that Abram says he believes. We have seen Abram act through trust and faith in God, and we know that he understands that God has a plan for him. But, this is the first time that we truly see him express his belief in God. We can be going through the motions and understanding in our head that there is a plan, but are we willing to come to the place where we truly believe God’s plan for us? It…

New Beginnings, Day 14 Ready for anything. Read Genesis chapter 14. In reading through this battle, we see that there was a group of 5 kings up against a group of 4 kings. Unfortunately, Abram’s nephew Lot was caught up in the middle of it. Up to that point, Abram wasn’t involved. He was not looking for a fight. He was not attempting to conquer anything. Up through this entire book we have not seen Abram engaged in battle, however he was ready for it. He had 318 men that were trained for that very purpose, even though he had never actively sought to conquer anyone. Abram understood the risks…

New Beginnings, Day 13 Choices. Read Genesis chapter 13. Abram and lot were too big to stay together. Abram allowed Lot to have his choice of the land. Lot went east, so Abram was heading west. Then the Lord interrupts and tells Abram that it doesn’t really matter because everything, north, south, east, and west will ultimately belong to his descendants. Lot wasn’t a descendant of Abram, and Abram knew that. But it didn’t matter that he chose land, God is still in control and God was giving it all to Abram. We can sometimes be very short-sighted. We see short-term decisions and forget that God is looking at his…

New Beginnings, Day 12 New Beginnings and Legacy. Read Genesis chapter 12. Abram definitely had a new beginning. God told him to leave everything he knew, take his family and move. God didn’t even tell him where until he got there. But then, God explained to him why he was moving him. God was going to give his family an entire new beginning and generations after him would be changed and impacted as a result of this new beginning. For me, ehen I’m looking at changes, so often I think about myself only. I think about the changes that I have to go through and the the plans for my…

New Beginnings, Day 11 God-imposed new beginning. Read Genesis chapter 11. The people have been following God’s command to cover the whole Earth with people. That is, until they stopped following God’s command to do that. A group of people got together and decided it would be fun to stay in one place and not go any farther. They decided to build a tower to recognize their great achievement. But the problem was, they were refusing to obey the command that God had given them. As a result, God came down, saw what they were doing, and realized he was going to have to intervene to get them back on…

New Beginnings, Day 10 Follow through. Read Genesis chapter 10. Yesterday, we saw the mandate that God gave Noah and his family. Today in this chapter, we see them following through on that mandate. The entire chapter is full of names of people that were moving out to fill the earth. Do we follow through? We get the commands from God, and often we start out going well, but then, do we continue? Do we follow all the way through the process? When God gives us commands, we should continue to ensure that we are following through and that our actions line up with God’s commands. Watch the video devotional…

New Beginnings, Day 9 The overwhelming blessing. Read Genesis chapter 9. As Noah and his family ended up back on dry land, God blessed them. I imagine that this blessing felt incredibly overwhelming to Noah and his family. As the only surviving human beings on the Earth, God’s blessing and command to them was to fill the Earth with people. This must have seemed like an impossible task, yet so often that is exactly how God blesses us. He shares with us a vision that is so much bigger than anything we could have ever hoped to accomplish on our own. God knows that in order for us to truly…

New Beginnings, Day 8 God remembered. Read Genesis chapter 8. New beginnings can feel very lonely sometimes. If you have truly left the things in the past, there’s always that time in between. That time before you have built new relationships, made those new connections, and started those new habits. During that time it’s easy to feel lonely. There’s a huge temptation to go back to what you were doing before because it was comfortable. I’m sure during this time of flooding that Noah felt lonely. As we we read here, God remembered Noah. While Noah may have felt alone, he was never truly alone. God was with him and…