Backed by God 

As I was prepping to teach my math classes this morning, I prayed that my students wouldn’t miss out on the future God has planned for them. That’s the best life they can possibly live. It may or may not involve a lot of math, but it’s absolutely amazing either way. 

Some people are scared to surrender their plans to God, but we should be afraid to miss out on what God has planned for us. That’s a blessed life that’s truly backed by God. 

Genesis‬ ‭15‬:‭1‬ ‭says, “After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.”

God promised to make a great nation from Abram’s child (who hadn’t been born yet). Then, to back up this amazing promise, God sealed it in one of the strongest cultural ways possible: “And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.” ‭‭(Genesis‬ ‭15‬:‭17‬)

To seal a big promise in those days, people would sometimes walk through the separated pieces of an animal together with the idea that they took the promise so seriously they were pledging their lives if they broke their word. For the promise of Abram’s amazing future, God basically went through twice and Abram not at all because God was guaranteeing the promise apart from any effort on Abram’s part. 

I’ve never received that kind of promise from God, but the Bible does record just as guaranteed of promises for us if we follow God. 

We really do each have a future we don’t want to miss. 

Today’s Bible reading is Genesis 15.