Genesis 13:9

New International Version (NIV)

If you go to the left, I’ll go to the right; if you go to the right, I’ll go to the left.”

For Meditation

I love Abraham. The man had such a sweet and gentle spirit that many don’t recognize.We often point to people’s failures or their great feats, but we fail to appreciate the underlining beauty of their inner selves that makes them possible. Every time I read about the saga of the servants of Lot and Abraham, I marvel at Abraham’s selflessness and humility (Gen. 13:9).Our worth before God is the responsiveness of our hearts to Him in every situation (1 Pt. 3:4). If anything is at stake, our chief concern must be the holiness and glory of God. When we fail, nothing should hold us from repenting and moving on to greater heights. In victory or defeat, God must be glorified. That’s the heart of God for us in Christ Jesus.

It is a life of self-sacrifice in Christ. Only the broken and contrite live it. The glitter and shine of the world have no power over them. The treasures of this world mean nothing to the self-sacrificed saint, as heaven beacons them home with its pearly gates and streets of gold (Rev. 21:21). They can look at the dryness on one side of the land, and the well-watered plain of Jordan with its luscious green pasture and say to the other person, “Take your pick.” It is the language of faith – faith in “the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not” (Rm. 4:17). You can call it, “selflessness,” – the kind that imitates God’s nature and draws His favor and blessings. It’s fueled by self-emptying and abandonment – a daily dying to self in Christ (Col. 3:5).

1. Is it possible for us to live that way? Yes!
2. Are we not better resourced in Christ by the indwelling Holy Spirit (Gal. 4:6; Eph. 1:19-20)?
3. Will He not enable us by filling our emptied, broken selves (Eph. 5:18)?
4. So, can we lose ourselves in Christ for the sake of others and the glory of God (Gal. 2:20; Phil. 2:3-4)? O, how needed is this selfless attitude in our marriages!
5. Can we trust God with whatever is left for us after ceding our interest to somebody else, just as Abraham did (Gen. 13:9)?

I pray you will prayerfully read this portion of the narrative of Genesis 13:  “The Lord said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, “Look around from where you are, to the north and south, to the east and west.  All the land that you see I will give to you … Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you.”

So: May this be a source of encouragement to you to sacrifice selfishness on the altar of Calvary; and may you reap the blessings of heaven, and the choicest of God’s bounty on earth till Christ comes.

The beauty of selflessness is the heart of Christ displayed to others in our choices.

Shalom