Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.
In Genesis 17:1-7 Abraham receives a promise of God. Here he is told that he will be the father of many nations, that he will be fruitful, that kings will come from his offspring, and that God’s covenant will be with Abraham and his people forever. What’s startling about this covenant is that God is the one establishing it. Normally we think of a covenant as existing between two people. But this is a remarkably one-sided covenant. God approaches Abraham. God lays out the terms of the covenant. Here, there is nothing required of Abraham except his existence. And God makes all the promises. It’s all from God.
How do Christians respond to such a covenant? Are we willing to accept that the Lord himself will do what is best for us? Are we, like Abraham, ready to accept the covenant as being received by faith and not by works? Are we willing to trust that God is good to his Word?
Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him as righteousness. May we have the same grace, to be partakers of God’s promise by grace through faith.
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