Have faith in Him, may we not miss all that He provides for us along the way

I will trust in the Lord for He is good, faithful, and just.  He has wonderful plans for me, and I know He holds my future.

Dear Lord, open our hearts and our minds to the power of Your Word, which as we read, we may know, understand, and obey Your Word for us today.  We pray in Jesus’ name.  Amen.  (Author unknown)

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DAILY DEVOTIONAL – Thursday, June 27, 2024

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Today’s daily reading:

[Have faith in Him, may we not miss all that He provides for us along the way]

LIFE’S PILGRIMAGE

Scripture reading:

. . .  Take courage from these heroes of faith, who lived and died without seeing the fruit of their faith on earth and yet continued to believe.

Note – We can take comfort in knowing that Jesus also suffered.  He understands our fears, our weaknesses, and our disappointments.  He promised never to leave us, and he intercedes on our behalf.  In times of pain, persecution, or suffering, we should trust confidently in Christ.  (NLT)

Hebrews 11:39 – For God has something better in mind for us, so that they would not reach perfection without us.

Hebrews 11:13-16 – All these people died still believing what God had promised them.  They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it.  They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth.  Obviously people who say such things are looking forward to a country they can call their own.  If they had longed for the country they came from, they could have gone back.  But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland.  That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

Today’s story is by:  Sheridan Voysey

Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one.  –Hebrews 11:16

More than two hundred million people from a variety of faiths undertake a pilgrimage each year.  For many throughout the ages, a pilgrim’s task has been to journey to a sacred place to receive some kind of blessing.  It’s been all about reaching the temple, cathedral, shrine, or other destination where a blessing can be received.

Britain’s Celtic Christians, however, saw pilgrimage differently.  They set out directionless into the wild or let their boats drift wherever the oceans took them—pilgrimage for them being about trusting God in unfamiliar territory.  Any blessing was found not at the destination but along the journey.

Hebrews 11 was an important passage for the Celts.  Since the life in Christ is about leaving the world’s ways behind and trekking like foreigners to the city of God (vv. 13-16), a pilgrimage echoed their life’s journey.  By trusting God to provide along their difficult, untrodden path, the pilgrim grew the kind faith lived by the heroes of old (vv. 1-12¹).

What a lesson to learn, whether we physically trek or not: for those who have trusted Jesus, life is a pilgrimage to God’s heavenly country, full of dark forests, dead ends, and trials.  As we journey through, may we not miss the blessing of experiencing God’s provision along the way.

[If you would like to journal, reflect, meditate, or pray on today’s reading:]

– How can you be open today to receiving God’s gifts along life’s path?

– How can you remind yourself that this world, as it is now, isn’t your real home?

Prayer: Dear God, thank You for showing me that life’s trials are opportunities for me to grow a deeper faith in You.

Scripture reference:

¹) Hebrews 11:1-12 – Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see.  Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation.

By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen.

It was by faith that Abel brought a more acceptable offering to God than Cain did.  Abel’s offering gave evidence that he was a righteous man, and God showed his approval of his gifts.  Although Abel is long dead, he still speaks to us by his example of faith.

It was by faith that Enoch was taken up to heaven without dying—“he disappeared, because God took him.”  For before he was taken up, he was known as a person who pleased God.  And it is impossible to please God without faith.  Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.

It was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood.  He obeyed God, who warned him about things that had never happened before.  By his faith Noah condemned the rest of the world, and he received the righteousness that comes by faith.

It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance.  He went without knowing where he was going.  And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith—for he was like a foreigner; living in tents.  And so did Isaac and Jacob, who inherited the same promise.  Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God.

It was by faith that even Sarah was able to have a child, though she was barren and was too old.  She believed that God would keep his promise.  And so a whole nation came from this one man who was as good as dead—a nation with so many people that, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore, there is no way to count them.

https://odb.org/2024/06/27/lifes-pilgrimage

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