21 Days of Prayer & Fasting: Day 13
America World’s goal is to make sure that orphaned children get the opportunity for a better life. We not only help provide shelter, food, education, and medical care to orphaned children around the world but most importantly, we help them get adopted into loving families. This year 100 children have already come home.
As we enter the Season of Hope we are once again entering into a 21-day time of prayer and fasting. Each day has a special scripture focus as well as a devotional written by America World adoptive mom, Cheri Strange. Enjoy Day 13 below, and please continue to join us each day for a time of prayer and devotion as we focus on meeting the needs of children worldwide.
Day 13 of 21 • This day’s reading
Smack in the middle of Hebrews 11 is a mystery wrapped in an enigma, as Winston Churchill might call it. At least it may appear so at first glance. What is the significance of Isaac invoking a blessing on his twin boys? Directly, we find Jacob using his dying breath to do the same on his clan. Following suit, in this train of thought, Joseph includes the hardships that will occur in Egypt along with God’s promise of deliverance. “And please don’t forget my bones on the way out!” he adds.
What does any of this have to do with faith?
At times during their lives when things were somewhat dramatic, Isaac and Jacob both experienced encounters with the living God who reaffirmed His covenant promise with Abraham about the Promise Land. Joseph had gone from the pit to the palace and everywhere in between while walking with the Lord. These guys developed a history with God and deemed Him believable. Imperfect and flawed in character though they were, they walked the high roads and lowlands and lived to tell about it. The tale was similar across generations.
“Always remember there is blessing in obedience because your God is faithful.”
Oh, yes. They had a history with God, as well as a sure future. These patriarchs wanted the next generation to know more than anything else—there was blessing ahead. A Divine blessing—yet, it was to be understood in the right context and setting. They were not praying anything outside of God’s heart, but simply instilling a heart for God’s plan for them into the next generations.
The roads traveled had been wrought with hardship. Wisdom sought to inform the heart and mind to expect more than gumdrops, candy corn, and soft living. Unexplained and long stents of hardship are often all fitted perfectly into God’s plan to bless His people. That’s the great mystery the writer of Hebrews wants to illuminate.
Stay the course!
God was faithful in the past. He will be faithful in your present. There remains Divine blessing in the midst of trouble, hardship, and what sometimes feels like all around badness.
Don’t be tempted to avoid the trouble or possible hardship and miss the blessing!
Pray for the courage to take that next step. Pray for endurance. Pray for eyes to see beyond your present difficulties to the greater things of God.
This 21-day devotional is also available as a Plan on YouVersion. Follow along on your mobile device each day by searching “What if You Were the Plan?”