Sunday, 4th December 2022
Rev Daniel Xi An Poon
We are losing our faith in our city. The news are telling us everyday how much crimes we have in this city. We thought this is our promised land, but everything around us is giving us doubt. The promised land is the place we are promised to be, God will give us peace and give us assurance. But the world is full of darkness, trying to put us down and make us giving up on hope.
Today we’ll talk about the father of faith, Abraham. Every Christian knows Abraham, we even call ourselves the decedents of Abraham. But do we know that Abraham was called Abram before, so how did his name changed to Abraham?
Abram was the citizen of Ur, a place of abundance, a place he was comfortable in and familiar with. But when he receives the calling from God, he moved his entire family out from Ur and towards Canaan. In Canaan, they had to live in tent, and they had to rely on the rain water. In Egypt, they can take water from Rice Nile, but in Canaan, they had to wait for the rain. Where there’s no rain, then they’ll have to endure famine.
Famine in the land is a challenge for us. This is our promised land from God, so why would we still have famine? In Genesis, Adam and Eve sinned against God and were cursed. We must know that nothing in this world can satisfy us except for God. We must focus on God and let God satisfy us with His love. When we focus on our spouse or our children and let them satisfy us, then we can never be filled.
Our desires can only be filled from the source, everything is from God. When we face a problem, firstly we would want to solve the problem. Abram was the same, when he faced the famine in the promised land, he turned to Egypt for help. In Isaiah 60:2, God says, “For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; but the Lord will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you.” God wants us to stay and wait for Him, He will give us our inheritance.
When we choose the world way, we will lose the presence of God. On the other hand, she. We choose God, even though we might still in darkness but God’s light will shine upon us. God is speaking to us, we just need to stay, to hear, to connect with Him. He will shine on us so we can shine like Jesus.