July 19, 2026:

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“So Abram said to Lot, ‘Let’s not have any quarreling between you and me, or between your herders and mine, for we are close relatives. Is not the whole land before you? Let’s part company. If you go to the left, I’ll go to the right; if you go to the right, I’ll go to the left.” (Genesis 13.8-9)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

Have you looked around and watched as people who said they were problem-solvers did little more than “put the problem away”? They pacified the situation in hope that it would just disappear or they made excuses for it or practiced such tolerance believing that if they just didn’t mind it wouldn’t matter. What was the result? Did the problem get resolved or was the surrender declaring “it just isn’t going to be a problem for me”? Abram did take the lead when it came to the situation of “too much” between himself and Lot. What we do not hear, which does not mean it did not happen or exist, was the consultation with God in prayer and with one another. We do not see attempts of mediation between Abram and Lot and their respective herders, shepherds and stewards. What we do see is Abram deciding to please and pacify Lot by allowing him to choose where to go and live on his own. It might feel a bit like what the father did in the Parable of the Prodigal Son. There, as you remember mighty one of God, the father released a portion of his property which would equal the inheritance the younger son would receive if his father was dead. He took his allotted portion and went to be established in a distant land (not too distant that his father lost sight of him.) Did Abram truly believe that giving Lot free choice and free reign would resolve the conflict between the herders and the shepherds, the Canaanites and the Perizzites who also lived in the land? Was it some sort of compromise in an effort to restore peace and calm between the two? Was their other dynamics happening there between them that the wealth and prosperity exacerbated? There is too little told to say more than speculation. What we are left with is the choice and the consequences.

Sometimes the same may be true in our own lives. We want to restore peace and calm in personal, corporate and community relationships. We seize upon an idea and run with it regardless of what we may truly know or have experience with. It sounds good at the start. It takes some pressure off, but the simmer remains. The problems that arise are external, but almost always are rooted internally. It becomes so much easier to blame the things around us including people for what we cannot solve within. In this situation, Abram offered Lot control over their physical destiny. God had made the promise with Abram. Now Abram offered a portion of the land which had been shown to Lot for his choosing of his own destiny. As we read into the next verses, we see Lot chose the Jordan River valley lush and green and filled with promise. In verse 10, the explanation of the choice said “…because it looked like the Garden of the Lord and Egypt.” Was it speaking of Eden as the Garden of the Lord? Or was he simply referring to how lush and promising it seemed to him and thus blessed with the greater goodness of God? What is interesting is that if Abram hadn’t led them into Egypt because of the famine and drought, Lot would not have known of Egypt. Did he had dreams of something like that for himself? Sadly, what we do know is that if the Canaanites and Perizzites were troubling, those Lot chose to associate with in the hope of accomplishing his own dream were worse. They were Sodomites. Enough is said. When we choose to solve problems on our own, the prospect may look good at the start, but the result may end up far from the mark at the end. And so it was. And so it still is. Let those with eyes to see, see; and those with ears to hear, hear.

TODAY’S PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness but as righteous works of faith, hope and love in Jesus’ name. AMEN.