Counting Stars In An Empty Sky By Michael YoussefSample

Day Seven

Trading Your Burdens for God’s Promises

Scripture: Matthew 11:28–29

When God said, “To your offspring I will give this land,” Abraham had no offspring and no land. He was counting stars when he could see none. Not only that, but Abraham and Sarah died in the land of promise without owning any land. More than four hundred years later, God fulfilled His promise to Abraham. Following the death of Moses, under the leadership of Joshua, the descendants of Abraham marched into Canaan and took possession of the land of promise.

God fulfills His promises to the third and fourth and tenth and hundredth generations. His promises are more real than the screen you are looking at right now. 

To follow Jesus, we have to leave our old country behind and go to the promised land as God commanded. Like Abraham, we must go to the land we cannot see, the land God has promised to us, the land He will show us. 

Have you heard God calling you to the promised land? Have you taken the first step? Or are you still in Ur? Or maybe you started out for the promised land, but you’re stranded in Harran. What is keeping you from going all the way to the promised land with God? 

If you have never taken that first step of faith, if you have never confessed your sins to God and asked Him to forgive you through the blood of Jesus, you can do so today, right now. 

Or maybe you are on a path of following Jesus, but you are wondering if God will, indeed, fulfill His promises to you. How can you keep counting stars when the sky is empty? You may be feeling so weary you can’t take another step.

Go to Jesus, tell Him about your burdens and sorrows, and He will take that weight off your back and load it onto Himself. He has already taken your heaviest burden—your sins—onto Himself at the cross. Turn to Him now. Pray for faith to believe He will fulfill what He has promised—to you and your family. Because He is always faithful.

Where are you in your journey out of the land of sin? Still in Ur, as Abraham was when he was called? Stopping in Harran on the way to where God called you? Already in Canaan but waiting to see God’s promises fulfilled?