ODJ: if

June 28, 2015 

READ: Genesis 13:8-11, 19:30-38 

We can make our own plans, but the LORD gives the right answer (Proverbs 16:1).

If you had a crystal ball that could show you your future, what do you think you would see? What current choices or decisions would you make to try to change where your life is leading?

In “Do You Even Know Me Anymore?” Mark Schultz sings, “I’ve watched my days turn into years, and now I’m wondering how I wound up here. I dreamed my dreams, I made my plans, but all I’ve built here is an empty man.”

That’s tragic. But it could be our story, just as it was Lot’s.

In the last record of his life, we find Lot living in a cave. And in that dingy den, his daughters tricked him into committing incest with them (Genesis 19:30-36). Lot became for all time the symbolic picture of a person who has received salvation in Jesus, “but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames” (1 Corinthians 3:15). Though he has eternal life with God ahead, he has nothing to look back on but wasted years, tinged with regret.

How did he end up there? In Genesis 13:8-11, Lot gained his independence and ran with it. He moved out of Abraham’s shadow and then had to choose where to settle down. He chose the Jordan Valley, for it was “like the garden of the LORD or the beautiful land of Egypt” (v.10).

Not a good choice. Pastor Ray Stedman explains, “[Lot] thought he could have the garden of the Lord plus the riches of Egypt. He thought he could worship God while still having all the luxuries and cultural advantages of a pagan, godless city.” And for a season, Lot did have the best of both worlds. But it didn’t last.

—Poh Fang Chia

365-day-plan: Matthew 5:1-16

MORE
Read Matthew 6:24-33 to hear Jesus’ words again about what we should live for. 
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Evaluate some recent choices or decisions based on Matthew 6:33. Are you making good choices? Where will they lead in the future?