Surrender: A devotional on desperation, humility, and giving over

 "Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the Lord out of the heavens. Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land. But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.” — Genesis 19:24-26 Gracious Lord Jesus, my friend and my King, The angels who rescued Lot, his wife, and his two daughters instructed them, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere…” (vs. 17). But when the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah began, Lot’s wife did look back. Her look can be interpreted as “looking intently, longingly, with care or with pleasure.” Lot’s wife wasn’t just looking behind her, she was looking back longingly to her life that once was. She had been delivered from a depraved and morally corrupt life, but yet she still was longing to go back. Lord, how many times have I unwittingly longed to go back to the very sins You’ve rescued me from? I know the...

 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.” — Genesis 16:1-2 Gracious Lord Jesus, my friend and my King, God has given Abram a promise: a son of his own flesh and blood would be his heir. In fact, his offspring would be as numerous as the stars in the sky. Abram believed the Lord. But his wife Sarai remained childless and decided to take matters into her own hands. She begins by misinterpreting God’s intent. She solves the problem with her own wisdom. And she declares, “Perhaps I can build a family” through her slave Hagar. “Perhaps I can” are chilling words. God has spoken a promise and has said, “I will.” Sarai’s resentful response is, “God, You aren’t, so perhaps I can.” Lord, how often have I tried to find a shortcut to Your plan and purpose? I am short-sighted and I can’t see Your full plan. So...

 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” — Genesis 11:1-4 Gracious Lord Jesus, my friend and my King, Genesis 8:17 instructs Noah and his family to multiply on the earth. This required them to spread out. But by Genesis 11, people found a place where they decided to stop moving and they chose to settle there. Their goals were to use new technology (bricks instead of stone) to build a tower; to build a tower as a means of reaching heaven on their own merits; to make a name for themselves rather than the name God had given them—a people of His creation, made in His...

 "Adam made love to his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, saying, “God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him.” Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh. At that time people began to call on the name of the Lord.” — Genesis 4:25-26 Gracious Lord Jesus, my friend and my King, It was humanity’s first revival. Amidst a sin-soaked world marked by Cain’s murder of his brother, Abel, and his God-less lineage came the lineage of Seth followed by Enosh. At that time, people started to collectively acknowledge God’s sovereignty through public praise, prayer, and worship. Pastor Alec Rowlands of Westgate Chapel in Edmonds, WA defines revival  as “the overwhelming sense of God’s presence that falls powerfully on a Christian people who have become dead and lethargic in their spiritual life reviving those elements of the Christian life that God intended to be normal for His church.” It was through Enosh and his lineage that the Mes...

 And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” — Genesis 3:22 Gracious Lord Jesus, my friend and my King, The tree of life in the middle of the garden wasn’t forbidden. “In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Genesis 2:9). What if Eve had eaten from the tree of life instead of the tree of knowledge of good and evil? She and Adam would have gained eternal life living in a sinless existence with God forever. Because she and Adam ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil first, and their eyes were open to evil—knowing like God both good and evil—the LORD protected them by banishing them from the garden and placing an angel to guard the way to the tree of life. Eating from the tree of life in their fallen state would have given them immortality in their rebellion. At the...