READING:
One-year plan: Genesis 5-9
Two-year plan: 2 Chronicles 22-23, Acts 7:17-36
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NOTE: The first scripture passage to memorize this year follows this devotion.
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Sometimes I think I take my relationship with God for granted. I certainly don’t intend to do so, but I suspect I don’t think often enough on the fact that the God of the universe is my Father. I think about that reality today as I read about Noah. The Word is clear about him in our reading for today: “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among his contemporaries; Noah walked with God” (Gen 6:9). Moreover, the Lord said of him, “you alone are righteous before me in this generation” (Gen 7:1). He did all that God commanded him, and the later Bible writers would remember him as a man of faith (Heb 11: 7) and a “preacher of righteousness” (2 Pet 2:5).
What catches my attention even more today, though, is the reminder that God remembered Noah and his family in the ark (Gen 8:1), called him to be fruitful and multiply (Gen 9:1, 7), and promised to remember His covenant with him (Gen 9:15). These chapters reverberate with what we noted in yesterday’s devotion: our God wants a relationship with those He created. Even when He brought a flood judgment on a wicked society, still He had already set in place a plan through which He would bring redemption. He remembers us even when we sometimes forget Him.
Here are my questions today: why would I not want to be in relationship with this kind of God? And, given our topic of study this year, why would I not want to pray to Him? Finally, why would I ever take this relationship for granted?
PERSONAL REFLECTION: Do you ever take your relationship with God for granted?
DAILY PRAYER: “God, I commit to walk with You . . . even if I am the only one of my generation to do so.”
TOMORROW’S READINGS:
One-year plan: Genesis 10-14
Two-year plan: 2 Chronicles 24:1-25:16, Acts 7:37-50
MEMORIZATION VERSE (JAN 1-15):
“A son was born to Seth also, and he named him Enosh. At that time people began to call on the name of the Lord.” (Gen 4:26)