Stand Firm

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DAILY READING

Exodus 14:13-18

REFLECTION

Do I Believe This? 

by Mary Alice McGinnis

One year ago in September, I went in for an overdue annual mammogram. The next day, I received that phone call, saying that I needed to schedule a follow up exam for an ultrasound. 

They scheduled me for an appointment on Monday, September 29, 2020. 

 

On Friday at 6 pm, I received an automated voice message that said,

“You have an appointment on Monday, September 29^th at 9 am. 

You have an appointment on Monday, September 29 at 10:15 am. 

You have an appointment on Monday, September 29 at 11:30 am. 

You have an appointment on Monday, September 29^th at 12:15 pm.”

 

My heart went into panic mode, I knew this was serious.  It was after 6 pm on a Friday, so there was no one I could call for an explanation as to WHY I had been scheduled for so many appointments. 

 

Trying to stay calm, I called my boss, “I won’t be in to work on Monday. I have to have some more tests.” A flood of tears came bursting out, barely able to squeak out the next words, “I think I have cancer.” 

 

That weekend, I determined to memorize this scripture and hold on to it, no matter what was ahead:  

“Yes, and I will continue to rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and God’s provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance.” Philippians 1:18b-19 

 

In today’s reading, Moses is standing before the Israelites who are fleeing Pharaoh.  Things are not looking good. Their situation seems impossible. There seems to be no way out. 

 

Yet Moses confidently stands before them and says, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today.” 

 

How could he be so confident? He held on to one truth, the truth God Himself had told him. “The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen.”

 

We don’t always know what God’s deliverance will look like. But we DO know that He loves us more than we can possibly imagine. After all, He made the ultimate sacrifice for us, giving up His Only, Beloved Son, to save us. 

 

When I finally heard those terrifying words, “Mary, you have stage 1 breast cancer,” I had to let that reality set in.

 

Then I began to cling tightly to the rest of Paul’s words in Philippians 1:20. 

“I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.”  Philippians 1:20

Where in your life is God calling you to a deeper level of trust? 

What terrifying, insurmountable circumstances in your life are begging you to ask,

 

“Do I really believe that God loves me? 

Do I really trust Him NO MATTER WHAT?

Do I believe in His own divine time, in His own perfect way, HE WILL DELIVER ME? Not for my comfort and ease, but for HIS GLORY?” 

  

Thank you, Lord Jesus, for Your amazing Lord.  I also thank You for the impossible circumstances in my life that are teaching me how much You love me. Help me in my weakness. Fill me with You Holy Spirit’s power so I can confidently hold on to this promise, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today.” 

Prayer Practice

Cup Prayer – This prayer will help you pour your heart out to God (Ps. 62:8). Begin with your hands folded together like an upside-down cup. Pour out before God all your fears, anxieties, guilt, sin, and shame. Tell Him what troubles you. Take time to be specific. When you feel like you’ve poured out your heart, flip your hands over, folding them like an open cup, ready to receive from God. Sit in silence, asking God simply to fill you with His Spirit. If your mind runs back to sin, shame, anxiety, or concerns of the day, flip your hands back over and pour it out to the Lord. When you are finished praying, read today’s Scripture and listen as God shares His heart back with you.

Death of Jacob

Prayer Practice

Spoken Prayer – Out loud, pray for God to speak to you through your reading. Praise God for giving us His Word. Ask the Spirit to help you read with faith, and to live out what you hear from God through the passage.

DAILY READING

Genesis 49:29-33, and 50:1-6

REFLECTION

Gathered to My People

by Mary Alice McGinnis

In today’s reading, Jacob (Israel), has just finished blessing and giving his final words to his 12 sons. 

As Jacob lies on his deathbed, he says, “I am about to be gathered to my people.” He then makes Joseph promise to bury him with his grandfather, Abraham, his father, Isaac, and his wife Leah. They were his people. 

When Jacob dies, it says he “breathed his last and was gathered to his people.”

During this time of the Pandemic, many of us feel disconnected and alone. As I am writing this devotion, I am preparing to have some long-awaited overdue time with my sisters. We have not seen each other face to face in quite some time. I cannot wait to see their faces, hug them, catch up, share some laughs, tell stories, and just share some special time together. 

 

In today’s vernacular, they are “my peeps.” Even though we have vastly different lives, we are family, we share a history and a sense of belonging that time and distance cannot diminish. Being together feels like coming home. 

 

In Jacob’s case, he was dying. Yet he looked forward to being “gathered to his people.” 

 

In a debate with the religious leaders of His day who denied the resurrection of the dead, Jesus pointed to the death of Jacob for a reminder. 

Jesus says, “. . . have you not read what God said to you, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” Matthew 22:32  https://my.bible.com/bible/111/MAT.22.32

Jacob, who was of the lineage of the children of promise (children of Israel),  knew something. He knew that even though he was dying in a foreign country (Egypt), he was not a citizen there. He did not belong there. Death was a reality, but he knew a BIGGER reality. He was going home to be with “his people.” He did not put his hope in just being buried with them. He was going to LIVE with them, together in their ultimate promised land, their home in heaven. 

The great faith chapter, Hebrews 11, spells it out this way, 

“All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.”  Hebrews 11:13-16

If you are feeling like you don’t know who your people are or where you belong, let this song speak to your heart today.

https://youtu.be/vqIvoFWFhds 

Thank you, Lord Jesus, for preparing a home for me, a place where I belong, in Your presence, fully accepted and forever loved. Thank You for the faith of those who are our spiritual family and those of courageous faith who have gone before us. Thank you for all of those who are Your people, those whom You are not ashamed to be called their God. These are also my people.  We look forward to that day when we will be gathered with YOU together in our Heavenly Home. 

Isaac and Abimelech

Prayer Practice

Lectio – Read today’s passage through once. Then spend some time praying and asking God to show you what you need to pay attention to in the text. Read it again. Now ask God to help you see what this text, and the part that has stood out, may mean for you. Don’t expect to get a clear word every time but always be ready to really hear from God through His Word.

DAILY READING

Genesis 26:26-31

REFLECTION

Be the Message

by Mary Alice McGinnis

If you are like me, this story in today’s passage is a little unfamiliar. So let me set the stage. Isaac was the son of Abraham - whom God had promised to be the Father of many nations. On Abraham’s death bed, Isaac is declared the child of promise. God declared that He would fulfil His promise to Abraham through Isaac. 

 

After Abraham death, Isaac was living in the land of Canaan. He was married to his wife Rebecca. Isaac and Rebecca had twins - Jacob and Esau.

 

At the time of today’s story, the land of Canaan was experiencing a great famine. Let’s say that their “supply chain” had dried up. The basic necessities of food and water were becoming more and more scarce. The need to take care of his family and fear of scarcity drove Isaac to flee. 

 

Isaac traveled south to a town called Gerar. The Lord appears to Isaac and tells him not travel any further south (vs 2-4), “Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the land of which I shall tell you. Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you, for to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father. I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. . .”

 

When Isaac settles in Gerar, he and the Philistines are at odds. Isaac is fearful they will take his beautiful wife, Rebecca. The Philistines become jealous of Isaac.  They try to sabotage him by filling up all the wells his father, Abraham had dug. Despite these setbacks, Isaac was gaining more and more prosperity and strength. 

 

Verse 12-13 - “And Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. The Lord him, and the man became rich, and gained more and more until he became very wealthy.”

Finally, the Philistine King Abimelech, comes to Isaac, and tells him, “Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we.”

 

Where do you find yourself in this story so far? Is the fear of scarcity driving you to flee to places God has not called you? Is it putting you are odds with those around you? Do you find people mistreating you or trying to sabotage you? Where is God blessing you despite your hardships?

 

Isaac kept listening to God and relying upon His promise, and God continued to bless him. 

 

Abimelech could see it. Isaac did not have to flaunt it or preach to the King in any way. It became abundantly obvious to this Philistine King. He comes to Isaac and says, “We see plainly that the Lord has been with you. . . You are now the blessed of the Lord.” Seeing the Lord’s blessing upon Isaac, the King asks him agree to a treaty between them.

 

What would your response have been in that situation? Why do you think Isaac decides to make a treaty with these pagan Philistines, the very ones who tried to sabotage him? 

 

I believe that sometimes, our hardships, our obstacles, even the sabotaging of our enemies is a chance for God to work a powerful message.

 

Sometimes God asks us to tell the message, but other times He asks us to allow our lives to BE THE MESSAGE. The message that God spoke to Abraham, and then to Isaac was, “And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. . .”

  

Isaac could have retailed.  He could have turned the King away.  He could have wielded his power over him. But instead, Isaac remembers God’s calling to be a blessing as he had been blessed.

God’s ultimate richest blessing have been given to us through the incarnation of the Savior, Jesus Christ - the offspring of Abraham and Isaac.  

We now have a richness that this world cannot ever give. We have a peace that passes all understanding, a solid rock, and firm foundation, an eternal hope. 

 

How might God be using your life as a powerful message of His Divine, eternal blessings, the kind of blessings that are abundant and everlasting?   

 

Thank you for blessing me, even when life is hard.  I know the blessings I have in You are abundant and eternal and can never be taken from me.  Help me live my life to be a blessing to others so they may come to know You too. 

The Covenant of Circumcision

Prayer Practice

Cup Prayer – This prayer will help you pour your heart out to God (Ps. 62:8). Begin with your hands folded together like an upside-down cup. Pour out before God all your fears, anxieties, guilt, sin and shame. Tell Him what troubles you. Take time to be specific. When you feel like you’ve poured out your heart, flip your hands over, folding them like an open cup, ready to receive from God. Sit in silence, asking God simply to fill you with His Spirit. If your mind runs back to sin, shame, anxiety, or concerns of the day, flip your hands back over and pour it out to the Lord. When you are finished praying, read today’s Scripture and listen as God shares His heart back with you.

DAILY READING

Genesis 17:1-14

REFLECTION

Sign of Promise

by Mary Alice McGinnis

Do you remember the story of Abram? The name Abram means “Father of many.” Yet, when God called Abram out of his home country at the age of 75, he was childless.  God later appeared to Abram and told him that he would have descendants as numerous as the stars and the sand. At age 86, he had his first child, Ishmael, through this maidservant Hagar. But his wife, Sarai, remained childless.

 

Now he is 99 years old. He has waited nearly 25 years for God to fulfill his promise, and 13 years since God had last appeared to him. 

 

When God appears in today’s reading, he gave Abram (father of many) a new name:  Abraham – the Father of many nations.  It must have seemed to Abram that God had forgotten His promise to him. But the Almighty, the El-Shaddai, all sufficient God who has His hand on everything, gave him a new name. This new name signifies that God had indeed NOT forgotten His promise but was making it ever more grand!!

 

To top it all off, he commands Abraham, this one promised to be the father of many nations, to mark each male child with a sign of this promise, this everlasting covenant.  The sign of circumcision. God called them to cut off the foreskin of the very organ of procreation. 

 

Doesn’t that just shout, “Don’t depend upon your own flesh to make this happen!” 

 

Abraham did not have the power within himself to make this happen. He had tried to “help God out” by trying to make the promise come about through having a child with Hagar. God said to trust Him, to walk before Him blamelessly, in full dependence upon His faithfulness.

 

How about you? Do you know the promises God has made to you?

 

Colossians 2:11-13 says, “In Him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses.”

 

Do you find yourself wondering if God has forgotten you when His promises seem to be a long time in being fulfilled in your life? 

 

Do you ever find yourself trying to take things into your own hands? Confess that before God right now. He promises to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  

 

God has made an everlasting covenant, an unbreakable promise that is as sure as the promise to Abraham. He is our El-Shaddai, the Almighty One, the One who is all sufficient and will supply all our needs.

 

When seeds of doubt come knocking, remember God’s covenant. Remember His promise to Abraham, though long in being fulfilled, was even grander than he could have imagined.   

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. Therefore, from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore. Hebrews 11:8,12

 
Lord, thank You for Your covenant love for us!  Teach us to have faith like Abraham. 

The Ultimate Change

Prayer Practice

Breath Prayer – Take 2-3 minutes today to pray a simple breath prayer. Get somewhere quiet and relaxing. Breathe in deeply, and then breathe out fully. As you breathe in, ask God to fill you with His presence, grace, love, peace, etc. Consider using the list of spiritual fruit in Galatians 5:22-23. As you breathe out, offer to God the things you need Him to take from you – sin, doubt, shame, anxiety, fear, etc. Pray this way for just a few minutes, trusting God to work, and then begin reading today’s Scripture.

DAILY READING

1 Corinthians 15:50-58

REFLECTION

Behold: Mystery and Victory

by Mary Alice McGinnis

Behold!  What does that word mean to you?  In today’s reading, Paul tells his readers (including us) BEHOLD! 

It’s more than just LOOK.  It is more like a command to take notice, to see, observe, to pay attention!  He is saying, “Listen up, what I am about to tell you is of utmost importance!”

What was it that Paul found so important? 

Through the prompting of the Holy Spirit’s Divine inspiration, Paul says:

“I tell you a mystery!”

Earlier in letter to the Corinthians, he says, “But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory.” 1 Corinthians 2:7

The mystery Paul is speaking about is not something they could come to know or understand with their own intellectual prowess. No amount of human searching would ever be able to unveil this mystery.  This secret mystery of God can only be comprehended by those whom God chooses to reveal it to.

Let’s try to picture what Paul describes with our mind’s eye. 

“We will not all sleep, but we shall all by changed!”

What if that were really true?  What if what we fear the most, the demons that haunt us, the sin that seems to hold us captive, what if death itself no longer had power over us?  What if what we thought would crush and destroy us (make us perish) was SWALLOWED UP? 

What if that ultimate enemy had NO POWER OVER US?

Picture this. The enemy has you in his clutches. All seems lost. You are held captive, feeling the crushing weight of shame, failure, and insignificance.

Then a trumpet sounds. It is a call of victory! The One who sent to the cross for you swallows up all that is trying to destroy you. And no one is left to harm you.

How would that change you? How would keeping your eyes on the VICTORY that is now yours change how you live today?

Thank You Lord Jesus, for being the conquering hero!  You are the Divine Mystery that has been planned by God from all eternity.  Your death and resurrection has changed me and set me free!  I am forever Yours! 

Now, no power of hell, nor scheme of man, can ever pluck me from His hand!

Thanks be to God who gives us the victory! 

 

Suffering for Doing Good

DAILY READING

1 Peter 3:8-22

REFLECTION

My Heart – A Throne

by Mary Alice McGinnis

Suffering. No one likes it. No one enjoys going through it. None of us is anxious for that deep, dark day of agony and sufferings to come knocking at our door.

I had a friend in High School who was my church buddy. We went to all the youth activities and retreats together. A couple of years after we graduated, she married a young man, and they had 2 beautiful children. After a few years, her husband started having an affair. The woman he was having an affair with was also seeing another man.  My friend’s husband became so jealous that he went to the bar where the other man was.  He followed him out into the country and killed him. 

My friend was left to raise their two young children alone, while her (ex) husband went to prison for life. She was devastated. 

After several years, when her children were teenagers, she met someone very special.  He romanced her and won over her broken heart. They dated and soon decided to tie the knot. I was so happy for her that she had finally found a good person to spend her life with, and she was happy. 

A few short years after they got married, they decided to take a family vacation to a beautiful lake in Nevada. It was a vacation of a lifetime.  One particular day, they all decided to rent innertubes to float in the peacefully, pristine water for the day. 

After several hours, of soaking it all in, the pristine beauty soon turned to tragedy. A person came racing around the corner bend of the lake on a Jet Ski. They did not see the family floating on their innertubes and they struck my friend at full speed, killing her instantly. 

How do we make sense of such tragedies?  How do we cope? 

The world tells us to get even, to make them pay, to retaliate, seek vengeance. When we are hurt, everything in our being wants to lash back and make those who have hurt us suffer the way they have caused us to suffer.

Yet, today's passage spells out for us a different path. It says if you want life that is TRUE life, turn from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it!

How is that possible? This phrase came jumping off the pages to me. 

“But in your hearts, revere Christ as Lord.”

What does that mean? How does that help us, especially when we are suffering?

Our hearts, the center of our physical being, is also figuratively the center of our inner most being. Our heart is the fountain and seat of our deepest thoughts, passions, and desires. It is our vigor, our soul, and the seat of spiritual life. 

Who is Peter encouraging us to have seated there on the throne of our hearts? 

Will we allow anger, fear and vengeance rule our hearts? And if we do, what will be the outcome? What does that kingdom of fear look like? 

What is the alternative? When we are afraid, we can run to the safety of our Sovereign King Jesus. He is the Prince of suffering, the Emperor of agony. He endured the pain of betrayal, hatred, abuse, and even an unjust death. He knows every suffering we have ever felt firsthand. Yet, He suffered in a way that none of us EVER have! He felt the full agonizing abandonment of the Father, as He took the punishment of all our sins upon Himself.  

 

Why? So, He could bring us to God. He rose VICTORIOUSLY! He proclaimed His victory even to the depths of hell itself. They no longer have mastery! He now reigns supreme. 

 

I don’t know about you, but that is the King I want to hold in reverence and awe. That is the King I want to fill my deepest thoughts, passions, and desires of my heart. 

 

Lord Jesus, King of creation, Lord of the Heavens, Sovereign ruler of all things, fill my heart with all of who You are.  

You came to this earth as an infant, suffered for my sin, and now sit at the right hand of the Father.

May this quiet chamber of my heart overflow with the hope and joy that only You can give.  May we put our hope in You alone, the One who already wears the crown of triumph!

Prayer Practice

Spoken Prayer – Out loud, pray for God to speak to you through your reading. Praise God for giving us His word. Ask the Spirit to help you read with faith, and to live out what you hear from God through the passage.