Lately, my four-year old son has taken to bargaining to get what he wants. For instance, a few weeks ago he really wanted to go to the playground at the local park. Rather than simply expressing that desire to us, he couched his request within a commitment: \u201cIf you take us to the park, I\u2019ll be really nice and listen to everything you say today.\u201d I couldn\u2019t help but smile because this is such a human thing to do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us wake up each day looking to earn our place in God\u2019s family and prove that we are lovable and worthwhile in His eyes. We wake up believing that God\u2019s first words to us are, \u201cProve it.\u201d But this could not be further from the truth for those of us who are in Christ Jesus. Just as it was for Isaac and Rebekah, God\u2019s promise to us is not earned. It is received as a gift of grace. Like any good parent, our Father gives us these gifts not as a reward for good behavior but as an expression of His boundless love. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the greatest wonders of our God is that His promise of blessing comes to us without cost. You\u2019ve heard it said, \u201cThere are no free lunches.\u201d We live in a culture that requires payment for just about everything. Most things have a cost or requirement attached\u2014and usually, the better the product, the higher the cost. But God\u2019s promise is a pure gift. The same promise that God made to Abraham, which we read about just a few chapters back, God then gave to Abraham\u2019s son, Isaac. \u201cI will be with you and bless you. For I will give all these lands to you and your offspring, and I will confirm the oath that I swore to your father Abraham\u201d (Genesis 26:3). What had Isaac done up to this point to earn the blessing of God? Nothing! The promise of land, children, and intimacy with God was given to this couple by grace alone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In this passage I am reminded that God meets us in the ordinary moments of our day. Isaac was in the fields, and Rebekah was at the well. God was working out His redemptive plans even as they were going about their normal routines. What a fantastic reminder that God works His grace into our lives through ordinary, everyday moments. We do not need to create or seek out profound, mountain-top experiences to find the Lord at work. He\u2019s in the fields, and He\u2019s at the well. He\u2019s not waiting to be found; rather, He\u2019s pursuing us right where we tend to be. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Written by Collin Ross<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lately, my four-year old son has taken to bargaining to get what he wants. For instance, a few weeks ago he really wanted to go to the playground at the local park. Rather than simply expressing that desire to us, he couched his request within a commitment: \u201cIf you take us to the park, I\u2019ll […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":72157,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[298],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pitot"],"acf":{"hero_background_image":false,"related_plans":[72122],"weekly_truth":false,"grace_day":false,"share_text":"#SheReadsTruth","devotional_text":"ISAAC AND REBEKAH<\/b> Lately, my four-year old son has taken to bargaining to get what he wants. For instance, a few weeks ago he really wanted to go to the playground at the local park. Rather than simply expressing that desire to us, he couched his request within a commitment: \u201cIf you take us to the park, I\u2019ll be really nice and listen to everything you say today.\u201d I couldn\u2019t help but smile because this is such a human thing to do.<\/p> Many of us wake up each day looking to earn our place in God\u2019s family and prove that we are lovable and worthwhile in His eyes. We wake up believing that God\u2019s first words to us are, \u201cProve it.\u201d But this could not be further from the truth for those of us who are in Christ Jesus. Just as it was for Isaac and Rebekah, God\u2019s promise to us is not earned. It is received as a gift of grace. Like any good parent, our Father gives us these gifts not as a reward for good behavior but as an expression of His boundless love.<\/p> One of the greatest wonders of our God is that His promise of blessing comes to us without cost. You\u2019ve heard it said, \u201cThere are no free lunches.\u201d We live in a culture that requires payment for just about everything. Most things have a cost or requirement attached\u2014and usually, the better the product, the higher the cost. But God\u2019s promise is a pure gift. The same promise that God made to Abraham, which we read about just a few chapters back, God then gave to Abraham\u2019s son, Isaac. \u201cI will be with you and bless you. For I will give all these lands to you and your offspring, and I will confirm the oath that I swore to your father Abraham\u201d (Genesis 26:3). What had Isaac done up to this point to earn the blessing of God? Nothing! The promise of land, children, and intimacy with God was given to this couple by grace alone.<\/p> In this passage I am reminded that God meets us in the ordinary moments of our day. Isaac was in the fields, and Rebekah was at the well. God was working out His redemptive plans even as they were going about their normal routines. What a fantastic reminder that God works His grace into our lives through ordinary, everyday moments. We do not need to create or seek out profound, mountain-top experiences to find the Lord at work. He\u2019s in the fields, and He\u2019s at the well. He\u2019s not waiting to be found; rather, He\u2019s pursuing us right where we tend to be.<\/p>","share_image_height":"640","day_number":"5","scripture":"Genesis 22:1-19, Genesis 24:1-4, Genesis 24:10-27, Genesis 24:32-33, Genesis 24:42-61, Genesis 24:67, Genesis 26:1-6","available":true,"ad_banner_name":"","ad_banner_image":false,"ad_banner_url":"","songs":"","key_verse":"","key_verse_reference":"","background_image":false,"background_color":"#FBF7F3","scripture_references":false,"share_image":false,"author_name":"","author_bio":"","guest_social_media":false,"show_ad":true,"ad_override":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\r\nby Collin Ross<\/i>
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