Daily Devotion

Selection Taken From:
A Year with God by R.P. Nettelhorst

Make this the year you let God's Word "dwell in you richly"---and marvel at the results! Each entry in this 365-day devotional features Scripture verses in which God speaks, accompanied by insights and applications to enhance your understanding. Learn what God says about hope and fear; perseverance and quitting; companionship and isolation; and more! 384 pages, softcover from Nelson, Copyright 2010.


God Chose You
The LORD said to Abram:
Leave your country, your family, and your relatives and go to the land that I will show you. I will bless you and make your descendants into a great nation. You will become famous and be a blessing to others. I will bless anyone who blesses you, but I will put a curse on anyone who puts a curse on you. Everyone on earth will be blessed because of you.
Abram was seventy-five years old when the Loan told him to leave the city of Haran. He obeyed and left with his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all the posses-sions and slaves they had gotten while in Haran.
When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram went as far as the sacred tree of Moreh in a place called Shechem. The Canaanites were still living in the land at that time, but the Lox) appeared to Abram and promised, "I will give this land to your family forever." Abram then built an altar there for the LORD. - Genesis 12:1—7 CEV

Just because you think you know what to expect from life, doesn't mean you do. Abram was an old man when God called him from the city of Haran. By the world's standards, Abram's life was nearly done. It was past time to retire. He was just an ordinary man living in the Middle East, one of millions of people alive on the planet in that day. And God decided to pick him. What made Abram special was not who he was, but who God was. God did not choose Abram because he was extraordinary. Abram became extraordinary—even in his twilight years—because God chose him. God chose Abram because he loved him.

The promise that God gave Abram when he told him to pack up and move to what would someday be the land of Israel had no strings attached. Regardless of Abram's character or choices, God told him he was going to become famous, he'd be happy, and his descendants would grow to become a great nation. Moreover, God protected Abram and those who encountered him or his descendants—those who blessed Abram would themselves be blessed, and those who cursed him would be cursed. God takes care of those who belong to him, and woe to any who try to harm those God has chosen.

Abram responded to God's promise by going where God told him to go, and by building an altar to God. Abram didn't know much about God, but he paid attention to him. Like Abram, we never know when God might surprise us, or what God might have in store for us.