Genesis: The Story of God's FaithfulnessSample

GOD’S WORK 

Listen to the audio guide to hear the complete devotional with Scripture, teaching and a worship song! Find a condensed, written version of this devotional below: 

Feeling like everything is on us can bring a lot of pressure. This responsibility enslaves us to our work and our competencies. It makes us feel like we can’t mess up. However, this passage actually teaches us that everything is not in fact on us, but on God! This reality frees us from the pressure we feel. It frees us from our discouragement when we don’t feel enough. 

In the passage, we find a woman named Rebekah who is pregnant with twins. God speaks a very interesting prophecy over Rebekah’s pregnancy. He says that the older child will serve the younger. This is an interesting prophecy because it overcomes common practices of the time. The first born normally received the inheritance and assumed leadership of the family. However, in this case, God has chosen to continue the line of his people through the younger son. He has chosen to give the younger son blessing and leadership. 

Paul comments on this story in Romans 9:11-12 saying, “For though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, it was said to her, ‘The older will serve the younger.’” God is directing attention away from human ability and focusing it instead on his power and his work. The story is not about either son’s competencies. It’s not about their good works. All of the blessing and redemption in the younger son’s life will be because of God’s power and God’s work. 

God works in our lives today in the same way, focussing attention not on us and our abilities but on Him, his power and his work. Our salvation came from God and his power, and our lives continue to be about God and his power. In the face of our failure, frustration and weakness, we do not have to sit in discouragement because we can trust that God’s power always prevails. We can experience the peaceful freedom of knowing that everything is not on us and that God is at work. 

REFLECT: Where in your life are you relying on your own competencies and abilities instead of God? What would it look like to reorient your focus to God’s work and God’s power?