Day 15

“So Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev, with his wife and everything he had, and Lot went with him.” ...“Now Lot, who was moving about with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents.”   — GENESIS 13:1 &5

Believing something won’t do you any harm, but neither will it do you any good. Believing arsenic is poison won’t kill you, and believing Tylenol will relieve pain won’t take your headache away. By the same token, believing things about God will not, in itself, do us any good, though neither will it do us any harm. Belief must translate to active trust and solid obedience.

It is possible to adopt a belief that others share, but to never allow it to translate into personal trust.  Lot was Abram’s nephew who lived vicariously through Abram (not yet called Abraham). Together they left Ur of the Chaldeans, journeyed to Haran, then to Canaan, down to Egypt and back to Canaan, but Lot never emerges from the shadow of Abram. He was simply ‘moving around with Abram’ (Genesis 13.5). Abram was the one doing business with God and receiving direction. Lot simply follows, his faith in God merely a spinoff  of Abram’s. Abram knows and experiences God, while Lot, along for the ride, only knows and experiences Abram. 

The work of God in other peoples’ lives can never be a substitute for our own personal walk with God. Because Lot only had a second-hand experience of God, his motivations and desires are not related to God, but to his own self-interest, or at best, those of Abram. At one point, Abram and Lot part company and Abraham gives Lot a choice of land. He chooses the lush, green Jordan Valley, which sounds wonderful, but was near the city of Sodom, and before long, he ‘pitched his tent near Sodom. Now the men of Sodom … were sinning greatly against the Lord’ (Genesis 13.12-13). This was a dangerous move. By Chapter 14:12; ‘he was living in Sodom’ where he became captive to some invading kings. Abram then had to rescue him and bring him home. But Lot soon slid back, and the next time the book of Genesis visits Sodom, ‘Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city’ (Genesis 19.1).  That was the place the city leaders sat, and Lot is now one of the leaders of the corrupt and sinful city of Sodom.

If we do not have a first-hand relationship with God, one of daily dependency and intimacy with Christ, it will not need very much at all to take us away. We must be weaned from a second-hand relationship, no matter how much we benefit from another person’s input and mentorship, so that we deal personally and directly with God. 

PRAYER: Dear Lord, Thank You for always being ready, willing and available for a personal relationship with You. I pray it will grow deeper and stronger as I come to know You better.

TO REFLECT UPON: How well would I say I have developed my personal relationship with God? What are some ways I can deepen and enrich it?