Devotional by Ray Stedman – This thirsty world – A daily devotion for June 23

Topic:This thirsty world
READ THE SCRIPTURE: GENESIS 21: 22-34

Abraham planted a tamarisk in Beersheba, and called there the name of Jehovah, eternal God.
Genesis 21:33

Here we have the old Abraham planting a tree and living next to his well. Why is this reported to us? It is symbolic of what is happening in your heart and in your life. The tree makes us immediately remember Psalm 1, which says that the man of God will be like a tree planted by rivers of living water, which will give its fruit in its time. Here is a life that is fruitful, that is interested in the people who are immediately around you and who are pouring blessings in their lives and in their hearts.

Abraham calls the name of Jehovah, the eternal God. If the church wants to do something to help this poor, blind, bleeding and struggling world in which we live, it will only be like Christian people who will rediscover what it means to live daily with strength, power, purpose and glory to call the eternal God. This is what joy writes in our hearts, the joy that this world is trying to seek in vain. Abraham found joy and in this way he could be the center of blessing in the land of the Philistines. Finding and discovering again the springs of spiritual strength, he did more to advance the cause of social justice and well-being that none of the programs and plans has ever managed to do.

The world that surrounds us today is looking for reality more than it has ever done before. The world is desperately looking for men and women of conviction who defend what they believe and who will not hesitate to declare it and say no, when these people believe that something they believe is wrong. The world is looking for men and women who have convictions, and convictions only have living in communion with the living God. That was what sent that new church in the New Testament times out to win a triumphant victory over every obstacle. They swept everything that was put before them, because they had daily communion with the living God.

But if we do not have communion with the Lord, we will have nothing to offer. We’ll be like a bunch of waiters in a restaurant returning to the kitchen and telling the cook: -Look, we’re having trouble getting this food to people. Why do not you leave the kitchen and come to help us?

If the cook is wise, he will say to them: “Companeros, the worst thing I could do is go to help you. It is true that you have a problem and you have to solve it, but if someone does not take care of cooking, there will be nothing to distribute.

If there is no source of morality in the church, if there are no lives that are discovering the strength and inner peace and power that they have, thanks to communion with Christ and with the living God, there will be nothing to distribute ! With this in mind, let us rededicate ourselves to this supreme work of the church of Christ, which is the declaration of the good news of Jesus Christ, that people can be saved and their lives can be transformed by knowing the living God.

Father, I ask you to rediscover with Abraham the secret of being a friend of God, a man or a woman of God, through which lives can be transformed.

• Application to life
  Is it enough for us to accept ideology and doctrine simply because it sounds spiritual? Do we remain alert to the many and varied deceptions taught by wolves dressed in sheep?