Daily Devotion, August 24, 2022

 

Devotion:

Read Genesis 13:1-11.

Our theme this week is focusing on living the way Jesus taught us to live. So it might surprise us for our reading to be from the Old Testament! But Jesus was a student of the Old Testament from the heritage of his family and from the times he spent in the Temple being taught by the rabbis.

We believe Jesus knew this story. Jesus understood that though Abram had the right to make the choice of the best land, he allowed his nephew Lot to choose which area he wanted. Abram gave his nephew Lot the first choice. And Lot chose what he perceived to be the best land.

Through this story and others throughout the Old Testament, Jesus came to understand and to live by example the ways of selflessness and sacrifice.

Selflessness and sacrifice are the ways of Jesus which are difficult for us to live by. Setting aside our own wants for the sake of the other person calls us to rely on God to help us and transform us throughout our lives.

Jesus taught and lived by example: to love our neighbors as we love ourselves, to put others first (as Abram gave to Lot the first choice) and to deny self and to take up our cross and follow him.

This is not to be a competition of “who can be nicer” or a striving after works-righteousness. It comes from a deep and abiding trust in God, following in Jesus’ footsteps and relying on the Holy Spirit’s transforming power to lead us to be people who would also have given Lot the first choice of the land.

Personal Worship Option:

In his letter to the church at Philippi, Paul echoes Christ’s way of living: Philippians 2:1-4, “Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” Transform us loving God, by your Spirit, to live in the ways of Christ. Amen.