Like Abraham in Genesis 17, we learn that our walk of faith is not just an event, not just something that happens when we are 9 or 29, but an ongoing experience of God’s presence and promises that radically alters our character and behaviors.
Genesis 17 begins with When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, "I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless. Genesis 17:1
This was Abram’s fourth intersection with God. When he met with God, God got loose in his life. God changed his name from Abram to Abraham-- Your name will no longer be Abram, but Abraham. His life went from being about an Exalted Father to being about a Father of nations, from being about himself to being about those who followed him. When we experience God’s presence, He gets loose in our lives and begins to work in us what He wants. Like Abraham, we have choices to make to install the new changes or to keep working with an obsolete, outdated operating system that will no longer be supported. For Abraham, the choice was to take on the sign of the covenant, circumcision, cut into his body. For us, the choice is to take on the sign that marks us as belonging to Jesus…the sign of love that is cut into our heart and works itself out into behaviors with others.
Bottom line: When we grow in our relationship with God we will experience changes.
So, the obvious question is: What has changed in my life, in my marriage, in my parenting, in my job? Because, if nothing changes, maybe I'm not meeting with God. I'm just reading my Bible!
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