THE LOT COVENANT

"So Abram said to Lot, 'Please let there be no strife between you and me....If you take the left then I will go to the right...."  Genesis 13)

Abram had no right to do this.  The Godhead had told Abram in the previous chapter, "To your descendants I will give this land."  Our text reveals that Abram had a "better idea."  He thought he could give some of it to Lot to make peace.  After the negotiations with Lot, the Lord God told Abram, "Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are--northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you...."  God was telling Abram that it was not Abram's prerogative to give it away.

Most of us, at one time or another, have had "Lots" in our lives.  They are people who brought out the compromise in us, which in turn we thought would make life a little easier, and/or, as with Abraham, thought our compromise was a magnanimous act of being a "christian."  God spoke a specific Word to Abraham about his future, his "destiny."  Abraham's "free will" offered an amendment to the covenant.  As with Abraham, so it is with you and me.  You and I have no right to altar the purposes of Jesus Christ for our lives, our work, our mission.  

The Bible gives us the antidote to the Lot covenant.  "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, Who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but emptied Himself of His privileges, taking the form of a bondservant..," which means, "without any ownership rights of His own."  This attitude, "....which was also in Christ Jesus..," will keep us out of free-willing negotiations with Lot.

Father, in Jesus' Name, forgive me for any Lot covenants.  Amen.

When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"

Hebrews 12:2