FAMILY FEUD

Daily Scripture Readings

Monday          Exodus 3:1-5

Tuesday         Hebrews 11:1-7

Wednesday   Hebrews 11:8-22

Thursday        I Timothy 1:12-17

Friday             Acts 3:11-16

Saturday         Genesis 21:1-7

Opening Prayer

Gracious God, as we study great people of faith, remind us that their faith still had struggles.  And remind us that in our struggles we can still be people of faith.

In Jesus’ name, AMEN.

DEVOTION:

While Genesis details the struggles of Joseph’s youth, and they were extensive, these verses remind us that God also blessed him with decades of success and prosperity in Egypt. He lived to see his children, his grandchildren, his great grandchildren, and his great-great grandchildren grow and proser in the land that he had successfully ruled for many years. God had truly blessed Joseph.

Yet, Joseph always remembered that this land over which he ruled for many years was not his true home. Joseph always remembered that God had promised a land specifically to his great-grandfather that would be passed down to his descendants. So Joseph reminds his family that God will fulfill his promise, and when He does, Joseph demands that his descendants bring his bones up to that Promised Land.

There is a wonderful hope expressed by Joseph in these verses. No matter what trials or blessings he had in this life, he knows that something greater is yet to come. Joseph has placed his hope in God, and He knows that God is always faithful to His promises. Even as he lay dying, Joseph remembers the precious promise of his Lord to bring His people into the Promised Land.

As believers in Jesus Christ, we too have a great promise before us: God has promised that we will spend all of eternity in a wonderful place that He is preparing for us. Heaven will be remarkable: a new earth free from the evils of sin; new resurrection bodies free from fleshly temptation; intimate fellowship with other believers, free from the shame of our pasts; the abilities to create marvelous things, to work without the sweat of our brow, to worship without limitation, to know God more deeply, and to be fully known by Him.                                                                Gregg Hunter