In Abraham's SkinSample

Return to the presence of God at Bethel.

What is important is not the path taken but what we learn about ourselves and about God during the journey. Abraham returns to Canaan and gets back to basics, builds an altar to God, and prays. He built this altar in Bethel, where it was previously. It reminds me of this verse from Jeremiah. Remember the old paths and walk in them.

In your walk with Jesus, you will make mistakes, you will be unbelieving from time to time. Once you admit your mistake and fix it, pick up where you left off in God's hand and be assured that He is waiting for you there. The Lord speaks to Abraham again, for his call is irrevocable. God has not changed his character, he has not replaced Abraham and neither will he replace you in his plan. What allowed Abraham to continue the adventure of faith in God was to hear the Lord speak to him again. It is the third time that God speaks to him and this time his mission is more precise: he must travel, survey the country, in length and breadth. It is a prophetic act that announces the conquest of the country by Joshua more than 450 years later.

God promised Abraham that he would give his descendants the land of Canaan. But to Joshua, he said, I have given you the land, even before the first battle. Spiritually, Abraham had prepared the ground for his descendants. You are only a link in God's story, not an end in itself. What you reap is the fruit of the prayers of those who have gone before you, and you sow so that those who will follow you may reap in their turn.

Abraham walked with God all his life. The ultimate goal of this journey was to build a relationship of trust with Abraham. God gave him directions as he went along. Abraham had to stay close to God, attentive to his words, often without understanding how what God was telling him could be accomplished. In this journey of faith, God revealed himself. His glorious deeds would be told to Abraham's descendants for thousands of years so that those who heard about them would also dare to trust in the God of Abraham.

The Lord is the one who makes the barren woman give birth, the one who provides, the one who deserves that we surrender to his will in worship. The eternal is not a god among gods, he is the only one, the only one, the one who is. Dear friend, what does your life say about God? You are his work, and he wants to put his signature on your life. I invite you to listen to him and learn to discern his voice to live by faith. Indeed, faith is listening to God and obeying him.

If you want to learn how to recognize God's voice in your life, I recommend the 21-Day Listening to God's voice Audio Guide. You can download it here.

David Théry
Practical teachings to experience God