A Famine After

[S] Genesis 12:10 --
Now there was a famine in the land; so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land.

[O] Just prior to this situation God spoke to Abram that He will bless and multiply Abram and his family -- 2And I will make you a great nation,
And I will bless you,
And make your name great;
And so you shall be a blessing;
3And I will bless those who bless you,
And the one who curses you I will curse.
And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed." -- however, he is faced with a famine and had to detour into Egypt.  God's covenant of blessings in my life does not equate to having a trouble-free life and even when struck with a crisis, I need to seek His guidance in the midst of it rather than just taking my own measures to mitigate the situation (in this case going to Egypt).

[A] Since joining a local church just over a year ago the church staff and I had been planning to start a coaching sessions for small group leaders.  The church was going through some internal changes + year-end scheduling challenges postponed the process a bit.  I need to check my heart once again to make sure that I am taking this step with a confirmation from His Spirit and understand that encountering a crisis or a famine is part of the course and continue to be on the path unless directed to go to Egypt.

[P] Dear Father, thank You for granting us to take part in this local church and blessed us to build relationships with many people in the last year.  We look forward to how You will use us in this community to share the insights and training You've instilled in us in last 25+ years.  May Your name be lifted up as we take part to share our blessings with others about church leadership.  In Jesus' name.  Amen.

Famine of God's Word

[S] Amos 8:11-12 --
¹¹"Behold, days are coming," declares the Lord GOD,
"When I will send a famine on the land,
Not a famine for bread or a thirst for water,
But rather for hearing the words of the LORD.
¹²"People will stagger from sea to sea
And from the north even to the east;
They will go to and fro toseek the word of the LORD,
But they will not find it.

[O] There are two types of famines: lacking physical food, or spiritual food. The physical food is felt tangibly and more immediately than the spiritual food because we are less sensitive to the spiritual aspect of our health than the physical. We miss a meal and our stomachs will enter into a red-alert condition and we begin to lose strength making almost everything look like food to eat. It appears that our minds are stronger than our stomachs because it can sustain the lack of nourishments far longer, however, by the time it realizes the famine, it is almost too late to recover. So, in some sense stomach's warning system works a lot better. In this passage, God warns about the condition where when our minds come to the point of realizing that we hit the spiritual famine and decide to feed up on spiritual food there may not be any to feed from. This type of a famine is really scary. Without physical food we would only die from this physical world, but without the spiritual food our deaths will last forever.

[A] Store up His Word in my heart (Psalm 119:11) while I can -- NOW. Do not put it off.

[P] Dear God, I praise You for giving me Your Word to feed my mind with. The Bible is like the buffet table where I have unlimited amount of spiritual food. This is wonderful and I will not take this for granted because I may never know when I would face with the situation described in today's passage. What I have in my heart will remain with me and so I will do my best to store up as much as I can now. In Jesus' name. Amen.