You Can Do Hard ThingsSample

Faithful and Blameless

Thirteen years had passed since Abram had last heard directly from God. In that time, Sarai’s servant had given birth to Ishmael, and Abram was just about convinced that God’s promise would be fulfilled through that child. Then God stepped in and reminded Abram that He was El Shaddai—God Almighty. He could do anything. Instead of making more promises to Abram, God laid out some expectations: “walk before Me faithfully and be blameless.” This doesn’t mean that God expected Abram to be perfect. He just wanted Abram to live in such a way that no one could accuse him of doing wrong. God wanted Abram to center his life on God. God has the same expectations of us. He knows we’re not perfect. We’ll make mistakes—where we genuinely think we’re doing right, but we realize later we made the wrong choice. But God wants us to avoid serious, in-your-face rebellion against His ways. When we center our lives on God and try to please Him in all we do, we live up to the expectations that He has for every believer.

Prayer: I want to walk before You faithfully and be blameless, Father. I can’t do that on my own. I need You to walk with me and guide me every day.