Daily Reading: Genesis 6-7
Scripture Focus: Keep them alive with you. (Genesis 6.19)
Devotional Thought: As God instructed Noah to build the Ark, he assured him that his sons and their wives, along with the animals he brought onto the Ark, would be kept alive. Noah was to build the Ark for that very reason: to “keep them alive.” God not only wants to save us, he desires for our family and friends to be saved!
When the Apostle Paul was about to be shipwrecked with 275 others in the Mediterranean Sea, an angel appeared to him with the good news of his own salvation, and he added this: “God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you” (Acts 27.24b). What a great promise! God not only wants to save us, he desires for our family and friends to be saved!
Paul had earlier written these intriguing words to Christians: “the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy” (1 Corinthians 7.14). What a great promise! God not only wants to save us, he desires for our family and friends to be saved!
Think about those you love. God loves them, too. We are the vessel of God’s salvation for our family and friends. That says two things to me: 1) I need to make sure that I am building my ark so that it can withstand the storms and floods of life. Only then can I “keep them alive with me.” 2) I can have confidence as I pray, for “God has graciously given me the lives of all who sail with me," and if they are willing, God certainly is waiting to save them!
Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for graciously giving me the lives of those I love. As you have saved me, help me to build my life so that it will be a vessel of hope and salvation for those I love.
Psalm of the Day: 1 Save, O Lord, for the godly one is gone; for the faithful have vanished from among the children of man. 2 Everyone utters lies to his neighbor; with flattering lips and a double heart they speak. 3 May the Lord cut off all flattering lips, the tongue that makes great boasts, 4 those who say, “With our tongue we will prevail, our lips are with us; who is master over us?” 5 “Because the poor are plundered, because the needy groan, I will now arise,” says the Lord; “I will place him in the safety for which he longs.” 6 The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times. 7 You, O Lord, will keep them; you will guard us from this generation forever. 8 On every side the wicked prowl, as vileness is exalted among the children of man. (Psalm 12.1-8)
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