Day 8: Gen 24:1 - 25:22

If there's anyone out there reading this, I'm sorry this post is late. I was out of town and without a computer for the weekend so even though I wrote it down on a piece of paper, I wasn't able to actually post this until late Sunday evening. Nonetheless, here goes:

The story of Isaac and Rebekah has been one that I've heard many times before, but to be honest, I've never really gotten much more than simple matter-of-fact information from it. As I was reading it, I really wanted to get something new and interesting from it, and I believe God showed me just that. I realized reading this story that Abraham went through alot of trouble just to make sure that Isaac entered into a lasting covenant with the right person. I believe that God too wants us to make sure that we don't enter into covenant with just anybody, but that we are very careful about who we pick to form long lasting relationships with. This is so evident in the lives of new believers who end up having to choose whether or not to keep their old worldly friends. By no means does God want or expect us to forget about and ignore the unsaved people that we come in contact with, but it's always important to understand that the people we spend the most time with will ultimately have the biggest impact on us, even if our initial goal was to only influence them.

The other part that really seemed to hit me like a ton of bricks was in Gen 25:21, "Isaac prayed hard to God for his wife because she was barren. God answered his prayer and she became pregnant." It's interesting to note here that Abraham's wife, Sarah, was also barren and it seemed like God had to constantly remind Abraham and Sarah about the promise that He gave them and continue to reassure them that it would happen. But with Isaac, it almost seems as though it was really no big deal. Rebekah was pregnant; Isaac knew that he was called to father a new nation; so Isaac simply believed that God would take care of it - and He did!

- Lord, help me to be careful about the people that I build covenants with. Keep me sharp and attentive and give me the discernment to know when I need to form a tight bond with someone and when I need to just pray for them and let Your work be done in their lives. Help me to develop my faith so that I can simply believe the promises you've given me and then sit back and watch them come to pass. As long as I will remember that realizing the promises that You've given me doesn't have to be a long difficult ordeal, I can easily and painlessly achieve what You've called me to do. -