BIG Life Devotional | Daily Devotional for Women
2013 Lesson of Trust
Whatever problem you are facing right now, whatever the threat may be on your future, know this – GOD WILL PROTECT YOU. He will come through for you. God will meet your needs and you will be taken care of.
You likely don’t feel worthy of that because maybe you’re not 100% innocent in the problem you’re facing. Oh come on, can we be real for a minute? This might not be all your fault, but you weren’t perfect and you have some level of responsibility here. You put your trust in the wrong people. You allowed your priorities to get out of line. You willfully overlooked the red flags because you just wanted it so bad. You stopped showing up as your best self. Maybe you don’t deserve this problem, but you’re part of it now. BUT GOD WILL STILL PROTECT YOU IN THIS. God will still come through for you. God will still meet your needs here and you will still be taken care of, even when you’ve been a little (or a lot) wrong too.
Yesterday we read about Abram creating unnecessary problems on his journey because he didn’t trust God to be enough. But God didn’t cancel his promises over Abram because of it. God was still there. God was still working. God’s good plans for Abram still stood, even through the problems he had part in creating.
Now, after Abram’s self-created problem, God speaks to Abram in a vision. Genesis 15:1, “Some time later, the Lord spoke to Abram in a vision and said to him, ‘Do not be afraid, Abram, for I will protect you, and your reward will be great.'”
Did you know God has a reward for you? A reward you don’t deserve, so you can’t earn it. A reward of sacred gifts and favor, goodness and mercy. A reward of Heaven’s open storehouse. A reward of breakthroughs and blessings in miraculous proportions. And it has nothing to do with what you do, it has to do with what has been done for you. This is about God. God WANTS to reward you, and his reward will not be stopped. God blesses because he is good – not because you are good.
How can God do that? Won’t his blessings be wasted if he gives to us even when we aren’t deserving? Oh honey, you’re viewing this from a limited perspective. God is unlimited. Nothing is wasted in his hands. Here’s what he knows – his blessings will always draw you back to him. When God shows up and does a miracle in your life, you can never forget it. When God gives you what you could never be good enough to deserve, you are forever grateful to him.
Something happened in Abram when he saw God’s faithfulness even after his self-created mess caused by his lack of trust – he never had to doubt God again. When you know God is faithful, you become more faithful to him.
Has God shown himself faithful to you? Doesn’t that make you want to be faithful to him? Has God proven you can trust him with those little things and those big things alike? Doesn’t that make you want to trust him fully with EVERY thing?
God had told Abram to go to a land he would show him, and he had specifically told him NOT to take any of his father’s family with him. But, Abram took his nephew Lot. It made sense to him to bring along help. It made sense to him to have strong arms for the long and uncertain journey. Abram had trusted what made sense to him more than he trusted what God had told him. And this created problems.
Abram’s nephew Lot (the one God told him to leave at home) was captured in war by enemy armies, so Abram had to go rescue him. Once Lot was rescued, a King wanted to reward Abram with great riches. These were things Abram didn’t need for his journey, but it must have been tempting. I mean for real, girl, if someone is offering you a designer purse and those famous red bottom shoes by Christian Louboutin, you want it, right? You don’t need it, but wow, it would be nice. But what if God had been teaching you the lesson of TAKE NOTHING WITH YOU. TRUST ME ENOUGH TO REFUSE EVERYTHING ELSE.
Abram is offered a great reward by the King, but Abram was fresh off some self-created problems to learn a hard lesson, so he refused the reward. He says to the King in Genesis 14:22, “I solely swear to the Lord, God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, that I will not take so much as a single thread or sandal thong from what belongs to you.” That’s a man who has learned the lesson. That’s a man who is no longer tempted to take along what God told him he doesn’t need.
And THAT IS A MAN WHO GOD HIMSELF REWARDED. This is when God says, “Your reward will be great.” In fact the KJV says your “exceedingly great reward.” Not just great, but EXCEEDINGLY GREAT. Now that’s exciting!
When you start trusting God more than you trust what you can earn, what you can collect, what you can buy, or what you can create, God starts offering HIS EXCEEDINGLY GREAT reward. I’ve always said you can’t outgive God – Now I’m learning you can’t out-trust God. If you trust God, God will trust you with even more! If you trust God with what you’re going through right now, God will trust you to step into breakthroughs and blessings you haven’t even dared to dream of. If you trust God with an open hand here when you have little, God will trust you with an overflow in your hand that simply won’t stop.
When you don’t trust God, you create unnecessary problems. But when you do trust God, God trusts you with more.
Jesus taught his disciples a lesson of faithfulness and he said in Luke 16: 10-12, “If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. (Meaning if God knows he can trust you with a little, then God knows he can trust you with more.) But (here’s the warning), if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities.”
Abram had shown that he would be dishonest. He had shown that he would trust in his own plans and his own people more than he trusted God. Then he learned the lesson. His problems served a greater purpose of changing his heart and increasing his trust in God. Now, when he is offered a reward by a King, he easily refuses. He has learned how to be faithful. And because he was faithful in refusing the King’s reward, God promises to reward him himself with an exceedingly great reward.
I love that God doesn’t give up on us when we get it wrong. He gives us another chance.
I’ve been given another chance after getting it really wrong for a really long time. I want to take the lesson and be faithful. I want to trust God fully and keep my hands open to him instead of clinching my fists trying to control it myself. That’s how God can trust me with more. I’m just a girl learning the lessons of faith and trust.
Isn’t that the journey you’re on too? You’re just a girl learning the lessons of faith and trust. God has given you another opportunity to get it right. He’s brought you through those self-created problems. He’s faithfully made a way for you. He’s blessed you in ways you don’t deserve. And he’s asking if he can trust you with what is next.
If you trust God fully with this, he will trust you with even more! You can’t believe it until you see it for yourself, but that’s how God works.
Abram messed up, but he learned the lesson and trusted God. God personally protected him and gave him an “exceedingly great reward.” Not just a good reward. Not just enough to get by on. But a reward that would blow Abram’s mind. A reward of the thing Abram’s heart most desired. A family of his own. And what was coming next would be more than he could have ever dreamed of. More than he could ever count. EXCEEDINGLY GREAT REWARD. (That’s coming tomorrow!)
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