Genesis: The Story of God's FaithfulnessSample

LIVING FOR GOD

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: 

Think about something in your life that you are building to make a name for yourself. Maybe it’s your career or your family. 

Now think about something in your life that you are building to gain security. Maybe it’s your bank account or your spot in an exclusive group. 

In the story of the Tower of Babel, we see a group of people consumed with making a name for themselves and gaining security. These people come together and say, "Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth (Genesis 11:4).” 

Efforts to build our names and our security like the people of Babel only leave us feeling unfulfilled. They leave us feeling like there must be more. The good news is that for God’s people, there is more! 

God calls us into his mission of making his name known instead of ours. He calls us into the mission of building his kingdom instead of our security. We make God known by sharing his love and goodness and peace with others. And we join in on the building of God’s kingdom by bringing the Gospel to individuals and communities. As we give and serve to meet people’s needs, we invite them to know God and to enter into this same purposeful mission. 

A life lived for God is the only truly satisfying way to live. We flourish when we live the way we were created to exist: Magnifying God’s name and building God’s kingdom. 

REFLECT: Identify an area in your life where you have been focused on making a name for yourself or building up security. What would it look like for you to instead be motivated by magnifying God’s name and building God’s kingdom?