Using the daily reading prompts from George H. Guthrie’s Read the Bible for Life, here’s how to use this devotional:
- Bring your Bible! Your kids need to see that everything you are reading to them or learning about comes from an actual Bible!
- Each day starts with a reading prompt. Read the selection as a family. If your kids are readers, encourage them to read along with you.
- After you’ve read the passage, read the short devotional thought that goes along with each passage.
- Prayer and application are important any time we read God’s word! After each devotional, there is a challenge to help apply what your family has read that day.
- There is a reading for six days of the week. The last reading of the week is a Gospel Conversation Prompt to help you connect the reading from the week with God’s plan for salvation.
Today’s Reading:
Read Genesis 12:1–9
God had a special plan for His people. It involved a man named Abram. Abram loved God and listened
to what He said. Not only did he listen, but he also obeyed! God told Abram that He was going to bless
him and make him the “father of many nations.” Abram was married to a woman named Sarai, and they
didn’t have any children. So, God’s words to Abram were a little confusing. How could he be the father
of many if he wasn’t even the father of one? But that did not stop Abram from listening to God and
obeying him. Abram had a lot of faith. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Faith is the…proof of what is not seen.”
Abram could not see how God was going to bless him –but he trusted that God would do what He said
He would do.
Abram followed when God told him to pack up his family and move. He did not know where he was
moving to– but he did exactly what God told him to do. God told him to leave the home he knew and to
go to a land that God would show him. God promised that Abram would do great things and that he
would be blessed– or set apart. Abram obeyed. He and his wife, Sarai, set off to wherever God would
lead him. Abram became the first of God’s chosen people, but we will learn more about that later this
week!
APPLICATION/PRAYER:
Ask your parents to hide a “treasure” somewhere in your house that you have to find. Parents can give
you clues but they cannot tell you where it is. This is similar to what God did with Abram. He told him
there was something special waiting for him– but he did not tell him where it was or how to find it. God
told Abram he had to trust Him and follow what he said. Do you think that was easy or hard for Abram?
Other Resources:
january memory verse coloring sheet