With Hearts Surrendered: Daily Devotional

By Stephen Keck

With Hearts Surrendered is a compilation of daily devotions to help the avid reader of the Word to deeper faith and to challenge the occasional reader to begin reading more often and for greater meaning and understanding. It is not intended to be a substitute, but a supplement. The Bible is the ultimate authority. This book will help set the stage for each of the passages and draw out relevant truths that can be prayerfully applied to daily living. The writings are broken up into sections and can be used in themed studies or at random by title. No matter how you choose to use these devotions, it is the prayer of the author that God speak his truth and meaning through each one. May the use of this book, along with the corresponding Bible passages and prayer, produce personal growth, enhance your daily walk with Jesus, and live every day with hearts surrendered to him.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 29, 2019
• ISBN: 9781644163115

Book preview

From nothing to all that we know; from a void to the sun, moon, stars, and earth; from the lowest of life-form to the creation of mankind, the writing of Genesis marks the beginning of life. But it goes far beyond just life’s creation. Although it begins with God and lays out the origin of creation, it also takes us from Adam and Eve and the introduction of sin through the first fall of mankind with Noah, the scattering of the nations and languages, Abraham and Jacob and the establishment of Israel, all the way to oppression in Egypt and the birth of Moses. Genesis is a story of centuries of firsts. The first sin, the first rain, the impending flood, and the rainbow are among the firsts or beginnings we find in the book of Genesis. We see the first murder, the first signs of selfishness and greed, sinful lusts and desires, but above all, we catch the first glimpses of the righteousness of the one true God and his love for his creation.

There is no better place to start a book of devotions than at the beginning. Genesis means beginning. It is a book that spanned many centuries and logged many first-time events. It sets the stage for all of life, and there are lessons that are relevant to us today

An Unbreakable Bond

Let’s take a journey back in time, to the Book of Beginnings or Genesis. The very first words in the entire Bible are In the beginning, God … Before anything or anyone ever existed, God was, and time was started as He created the heavens and the earth and everything in, on, and around them. The first chapter encompasses the first six days of creation, from nothingness to the formation of all that is and of Adam and Eve. In the beginning of chapter 2, His creation was complete and good, and on the seventh day, He rested. He did not rest because He was tired, but to set a healthy pattern for mankind to follow from that time on. There have been some varying beliefs as to whether it has to be Saturday, which, until Jesus’s resurrection, was the traditional Sabbath, or Sunday, since it is commonly accepted among Christians that Sunday was the day of Jesus’s resurrection. If we embrace Jesus’s teaching it is not the day but the concept that is important—0that we should work six days and then take a day of Sabbath rest, a time for a break from the toils of the week to enjoy time resting and focusing on Him. In today’s devotional, I want to pick up in the book of beginnings is in chapter 2. The writer of Genesis (most likely Moses), after writing about the creation, goes back to the story most of us are familiar with, the story of Adam and Eve.

(Read Genesis 2:5–24.)

There is a lot to be digested in this passage. I will begin by asking the question why. Why did God put so much care into making His original creation? Was it for His own pleasure? Maybe ultimately, but who was it for? The Garden of Eden must have been a beautiful place. There was no rain. There were no bugs or weeds to worry about and no death and decay. There was an endless supply of luscious fruits from the trees and bushes God planted. All of the birds and animals were beautiful and not aggressive, and He gave man dominion over it all, to enjoy and take care of, and allowed him to name all living creatures. God’s desire was to have a companion, someone to appreciate His love and His works, someone who would choose a relationship with Him, so He made all the rest of creation for His greatest creation of all. It was for the pleasure of Adam and Eve and all of mankind. He created humans with a mind to choose what was right and just out of love and appreciation for all that was created for their benefit. In fact, to affirm their ability to choose, God planted one tree, only one, from which the couple was not to eat. They had every other tree and plant to choose from. Just that one tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, was off limits. If they obeyed, which would have been so simple, they would have never died, and taking care of what God gave them would have been easy. But if they consumed the forbidden fruit, they would surely die.

It is curious that God created the animals in pairs but made Adam without a human companion. Why would He do that? The creation of Eve and its symbolism is as beautiful as she must have appeared to Adam. I believe God wanted Adam to experience loneliness so he would cherish the real treasure that she was. I believe God’s choice to create her from Adam’s rib was a beautiful reminder to all generations that man and woman were designed to share an inseparable bond, not of one in control over the other, but living and speaking and thinking as if they are both one. It is exactly the kind of relationship God wants with us. He does not want us to live as if God is God, and I am me, and the freedom He gives is freedom to be free from Him. We certainly can make the choice to reject Him, but He allows us freedom that we might choose Him and become one with Him. The bond of marriage between a man and a woman is not just a feelings-based covenant. Although, by God’s design, man is to be the spiritual leader in his household, He places man and wife on equal ground, but with different and complimentary roles. It is, by God’s definition, a physical and spiritual bond, inseparable, intended to bring oneness, and a unique partnership. It is no longer two, but the two become one body, just as Adam and Eve were formed of the same body. (Bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.)

The Lord created all the heavens and the earth with loving care for mankind to marvel at and to understand His unlimited power and love. It was a beautiful and wonderful gift, in hopes that man would choose to become one with Him. He created man and woman to share as one, to be lifelong companions, to populate and take care of the earth, and to come together in fellowship with Him. What He gave us was perfect, but as we will see in later devotions, human choices have reaped consequences that made life less than perfect. It has not shaken God’s love for us. It was and is intended to turn us toward and in closer relationship with Him.

Because of sin we lost paradise and connection with God.

Through Christ, we can reconnect with God and will find paradise again.

Made for Relationship

So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.

But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, He took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib He had taken out of the man, and He brought her to the man.

The man said, This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.

That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. (Genesis 2:20–24)

I am going to take a risk in this post and make myself vulnerable. The late spring of 2017, I was facing one of, if not the toughest emotional time of my life. Facing a stage of deep sadness and near depression from the loss of my wife, Mary, the year before, and then the sudden sickness and quick decline of my mother, and decisions that had to be made was nearly impossible to bear. In the midst of all I was facing at the time, there came another reality I have had to come to grips with, a regeneration of past fears that I fully thought were put to rest over thirty-one years before. No one on earth knew me like Mary did, and through this experience, I realized that she knew me better than I knew myself.

Many times throughout our marriage, we have talked together about scenarios of what would happen if one of us should die. When the subject of remarriage would come up, Mary was never sure she would want to get married again, and I am doubtful she would have. But she always told me I would have to find someone because I would not be able to stand to be alone. I have never been sure what I would do, and that is what I would always tell her. Victimized by glioblastoma brain cancer, Mary was declining in health, and while I was at home, taking care of her in her last few months of her life, she, maybe more than half seriously, told me she had to find me a girlfriend and began making suggestions. Please do not misunderstand me. I am not advertising for a relationship. I am just laying out the background for what I am about to say.

Grief is a necessary process of life, and when you lose the one you thought you would have a lifetime with, that grief can be greatly amplified. And it can hit you hard when you least expect it. But when missing the one you have loved and poured your life into gets coupled with an overwhelming fear of spending the rest of your life alone, the feeling is overwhelming and almost too much to bear. As I enjoyed my time back in my hometown in New York state that summer, the reminders of what I once had began to grip me, and as I would return to my hotel room, the loneliness would set in. And I began to realize there may have been some merit to what Mary had always told me.

When God created us, He made us for relationships. His strong desire and plan was for us, by our own choosing, to love Him and to seek a lasting relationship with Him. He gave us, as a gift, all of creation to enjoy and to care for with the hope that we would choose to love Him. But he also saw, and really always knew, the loneliness of his created man and declared it was not good for him to be alone. The Lord made Adam from the dirt of the ground and breathed life into him. He could have easily made a companion for Adam in the same way, but He knew there needed to be a special bond of love between the man and his closest earthly companion and helper. There is an awesome beauty in the love God showed and the unity represented by making the first woman from the rib of the first man. Adam said it beautifully when he declared Eve flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone. It is a beautiful picture of perfect unity in relationship.

The two, although separate beings, were united as one flesh. That is exactly the bond God intended for marriage. It is a bond that is intended to last a lifetime. When you lose a spouse, there are certain questions, even doubts and fears that begin to overtake your thinking. The reality that it is even possible to love someone else after having the great relationship I had with Mary is encouraging. My fear is not the guilt of disappointing her because I know she would want me to be happy. The fear I have is the same fear I had before I ever met Mary—what if there is no one? My hope is that I will one day find that special someone to live out my days with, and I look to the Lord to provide the right woman and to keep me from making choices outside of His will and timing.

My encouragement, especially to you who are young and seeking the one young man or woman that you will marry, is to know that God has someone very special in mind for you. He sees your loneliness and knows you. He declared from the beginning of time that it was not good to endure life alone. I will tell you to trust Him and His timing for that right relationship and save yourself and your body for him or her. Three things I would urge you to hold tightly and do not compromise are your faith in God, your God-given goals and dreams, and your convictions. Do not let anyone steal from you the joy and love God gave you to share with Him and that special chosen someone. God designed men and women with a special bond. He did not intend us to be alone, neither did He make us two selfish individuals to live out our own agenda. You can never develop a good relationship that way. He made one man and one woman to join together and work together to establish and grow a relationship that bonds the two as one flesh. It is not always easy, but it is worth it.

Whether I will remarry one day is in God’s hands. I truly hope so, but I take courage in knowing that He knows my loneliness and He may very well already have someone in mind for me. I just need His help to wait on Him and the eyes to see the right person and to know the right timing. If you are lonely, without that special relationship, take courage. God knows your heart and although you may be lonely, you are never alone. He made you for relationship. Trust Him.

What are you in pursuit of? What are you holding tightly? What would you give up for something everlasting? Pursue God!

That One Tree and the Deceptive Serpent

(Read Genesis 3:1–24.)

That one tree! One tree that Adam and his wife was not to touch! As a child, have you ever been told by your mother or father not to do something, and then hung out with friends, and that very thing you were told not to do is what they want to do? They try to reason with you why it is okay to do it and present a very convincing argument, until you start to excuse your parents’ direct instructions and decide to join the group and do the very thing you are told was wrong. Me too! Here is the origin of that very kind of deception. This is where it started. And this is where the first couple on the earth changed the direction of mankind forever.

Believers and unbelievers alike have heard or read the story of Adam and Eve and how they were deceived to disobey God’s explicit instructions by eating fruit from the forbidden tree. It is a very familiar story. But let’s take a closer look. In the account in the book of Genesis, the writer portrays the serpent as an upright, talking snake, who, like all the other animals, the couple got along with. Can you imagine getting along with a walking, talking snake? But in later books referencing this account, the Bible makes it clear, what we have always heard, that the serpent is Satan, the deceiver, himself. What is interesting, in the way this story has come to be interpreted, is that the serpent did not call Eve away from Adam, but he was right there with her all the time she and the serpent conversed. He was with them as they approached the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and he was there when she took some of the fruit and ate it. And then, she gave him a bite.

Remember, there was only one tree. They had all the other trees in the garden, so many good fruit-bearing trees, yet that one drew their attention and, with Satan’s help, got the best of their curiosity. I can almost see Adam looking away and cringing as she took the first bite, remembering God’s warning that they would surely die if they ate the fruit. When he saw that she was still standing, I can see him shrugging it off, assuming that, indeed, it was okay and taking a bite. They had been greatly deceived, not by God, but by the serpent, thinking that death (lifelessness) would be instantaneous. They did instantly begin a process of death that they could not see at that exact moment. Their decision to disobey cost them immortality and created a chasm of separation between all mankind and God. People would now have to work and toil through pain and suffering until the wear and tear of time would lead to their bodily death. A new way would have to be made to reconcile people to God, to restore his creation and to bridge the gap that their sin had caused.

After taking some of the fruit, they became ashamed. They were ashamed that they disobeyed God and ashamed of their own nakedness. Before that moment, they knew no evil. They knew only the goodness of God and all His richest provisions. But because they chose to disobey and eat from the fruit of the forbidden tree, they instantly became aware of the knowledge of both good and evil and learned that disobedience and giving in to evil and temptation reaps dire consequences. Did you see all their excuses and how they tried to pass the buck from Adam on down to the serpent. How familiar that scenario is, even today.

Adam: She gave me the fruit, it is her fault! As if he was not party to the original conversation, and she persisted until he tasted the fruit. Or that it was God’s fault for ever giving him a woman in the first place.

Eve: The devil made me do it! It was the serpent’s fault? As if she didn’t know any better, when all along she—in fact both of them— must have been curious about the tree. But God had told them to keep away.

To God, they were all guilty and would suffer the consequences for their actions: The serpent would slither and be the enemy of other animals and humans forever. The woman would have birthing pains. When we take the full content and its meaning, this goes far beyond the labor leading up to birth at the end of a pregnancy. The word childbearing is translated from a word meaning conception, which is not particularly painful. I think God might have meant more than the final labor pains of birth. He created women with a desire to please her husband, and give him, and to bear children. Now that death entered the world, the lives of the mother and children would be critical to sustaining life among mankind. The very thought might cause the pain of anxiety or fear. In addition, her own strong desire to bear children would give man rule over her, as she would need him in the process. For Adam, the ground would become much harder to work. Weeds and rocks would make it difficult to grow good crops, and hard labor would be required to be able to reach a harvest. Notice that He did not curse the man, but the ground. God still loved His creation, but sin cannot be without consequence.

It was Adam and Eve who brought the death, sickness, and toil upon themselves, not God. He gave them fair warning and a choice, and they disobeyed and made the wrong decision. But God forgave them. He did not remove the consequences. He usually doesn’t, but He did continue to love them and forgave them. He didn’t let them stay in fig leaves that do not last but made clothing of animal skins, long-lasting clothing to cover their naked bodies.

Now that they had eaten from the forbidden tree, God did not permit them to eat from the tree of life, which would have restored their immortality, so He banished them from the garden and would not ever let them reenter. So we have the ongoing battle between good and evil. We still suffer the consequences of that original day and of thousands of years of sinful mankind. But that is not the end of the story.

There was already a plan in place to restore mankind back to God; a plan that would take thousands of years to be realized, and thousands more to be complete. It is a plan that will one day bring all who followed God to a new heaven and a new earth, where the Golden City of God will be witnessed, and the garden with all of its luscious fruits will be restored to all who believe, past, present, and future. God’s son, Jesus Christ has established that plan, and He will complete it. That is a promise we can count on.

One Righteous Man Spared Mankind

After Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden for their disobedience, they began the process of populating the earth. This was even more critical now because death and hardship became God’s judgment for sin. People would no longer live forever on earth. Eve gave birth to Cain and Abel, and the first fit of jealousy led to the first murder as Abel is slain by his brother. And Cain is left to wander with his family in the wilderness.

Life was long for those who lived in the early days of mankind. From Adam to Noah, the men lived 750 to nearly 1,000 years—Methuselah being the oldest, passing at 969 years old. Adam lived 930 years. From Adam to Noah was 1,556 years.

As the years progressed, so did the wickedness of mankind. As we pick up the Genesis story, we see the sinfulness of people and the complete anger and frustration of the Lord.

When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. Then the Lord said, My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.

The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.

The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the heart were only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that He had made human beings on the earth, and His heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds, and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret I have made them. But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. (Genesis 6:1–8)

You and I almost never was! What was it that caused the Lord so much grief and anger that He wanted to wipe mankind off the face of the earth? He used the word mortal almost as an expletive. In the text, it carries the same meaning as the word corrupt. We know that the daughters of humans were women who had been born to people who occupied the earth, but who are the sons of God? It is not perfectly clear. Some scholars suggest it was heavenly beings (like angels) who intermingled with the women. Others say they were godly men, from the line of Seth, who married ungodly women from the line of Cain. Another interpretation suggests they were human rulers who emerged as heads of city-states in the ancient Middle East who flaunted their power by collecting harems of women. Early rulers were often referred to as gods in the Hebrew language and writings. Nephilim were usually men of great stature and strength, like giants, but in this case, most likely referred to people of great political stature, which may support the theory of the harems.

Whatever the case, whether the men who had followed God or the women who subjected themselves to them, they had fallen so deep into the wickedness of sin that God could no longer stand it. He was sorry He ever created people, so much so that He not only wanted to get rid of them, but the animals He created for their pleasure as well. As we read this short passage, we see clearly how God views sin and how much it disappoints and even angers Him when we fall so far short of His expectations. But one sentence speaks louder than all the rest of the account. One short sentence helps us to see how great our Father’s love is for us, and how willing He is to forgive, even for one ounce of righteousness: But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. The only one God found righteous would not only save himself and his family but would go on to spare mankind and make a way for you and me to exist. I believe one of the failures in modern-day Christianity is that we tend not to look at all sides of God. It is our will and goal to see, and for others to see, the love of God, but we intentionally try to ignore the fact that God is not only loving, he is also righteous and just. And He is an enemy of sinful behavior and lifestyles. He accepts those who will repent, and He is faithful to forgive. And He loves us dearly, but He can and will have no part with sin in any form. And sin always carries with it very negative and, sometimes, deadly consequences. It had gotten so bad that something had to be done, and the only one He would even consider was Noah.

I don’t know about you, but if I had to be any human character in this story, I would want to be Noah, or at the very least, one of his family. How about you? I am sure everyone else was finding great pleasure in their sin, but it was about to be brought to an abrupt end. I would rather give up the temporary pleasure any day to find favor with an eternal God. Are you with me? If it wasn’t for Noah, all of human life would have been lost and gone forever. I wonder if that can be said of you and me. Will there be someone our lives have touched that might say, If it wasn’t for [or insert your name], I would have been lost and gone forever. I pray that I might have that kind of Godly influence on even one other person. But that does not come by giving in to temptation and sin. It is true, we all fall short, but we get to choose whether to bask in it or turn from it and seek forgiveness. Like Noah, God would like to find, in you, that one who He finds favor in, whose heart is set on following Him. It could save a world full of people.

There is no gift, no service too small when it is given sacrificially with a heart to please God.

What Did You Say?

We’ve now progressed from the first man, Adam over 1556 years to Noah, and found a sinful wicked world. The disobedience of mankind displeased and angered the Lord so much that he wanted to destroy everyone and everything he had created and given life. But Noah found the favor of God, and he followed God’s instruction to build an ark large enough to hold Noah’s family and animals and birds, sufficient for repopulating, and for food to sustain them for the next several months. For the first time on earth it rained, and the rain was intense and lasted for forty days, until water covered the whole earth. Even the highest peaks had twenty-three feet of water over them. When the ark settled on Mount Ararat, Noah sent out a raven and a dove to test to see if land had been restored, and finally, they were able to exit onto dry ground. God gave the rainbow as a promise that the whole earth would not ever be destroyed by flood again. Once again, God gave the command to populate and to spread across the earth, and Noah’s descendants established what was known as the Table of Nations.

We pick up in Genesis with what seemed like a good idea to the people, but once again, sin would change the face of mankind and compound the difficulty they would have to face going forward.

Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.

They said to each other, Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly. They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.

But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. The Lord said, If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.

So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. (Genesis 11:1–8)

Have you ever wondered why people in different countries speak different languages, or how it ever got started? It all happened as a result of the building of a city and a great tower—the Tower of Babel. Babel or Babylonia or Babylon sounds like the Hebrew word for confused. God confused the languages. But why? What did the people do that God would show that kind of disappointment? There were a couple possibilities.

The most obvious to me was that the people came together to build the great tower to the Lord, which stopped the spread of mankind around the world, a direct act of disobedience to what God told them to do. Another possible explanation is that the tower was being built, not for people to be able to ascend to God, but to provide a way for deity to come down to earth from heaven to be worshipped by the people, as if people could meet what they perceived to be God’s needs. Either way, God’s sovereignty was being challenged by their behavior. People are deceived to think we can, in any way, help God. By thinking that way, we’ve missed the mark. God does not need us. He wants our devotion and wants us to want to be used by Him to fulfill His will and purpose. God’s plan to populate the whole earth was not going to be stopped, even though the people thought they had a better plan, so God and, I assume, His angels came down and gave each family grouping and nation a different language, which caused them to separate themselves from each other and spread around the world, as God intended, but with consequences. Imagine if you were in a large group of people, everyone speaking fluent English, and everyone able to understand each other. Then, in a flash, every group there was speaking in foreign languages, and no one from one group could understand anyone from another. How confusing would that be? There is only one time recorded after this account that words are spoken and people from many nations heard the message in their own tongue. After Jesus ascended in the book of Acts, He sent the Holy Spirit, and as soon as the Holy Spirit descended and filled the believers, they all heard God’s message in their own native language. But the languages remained confused or divided, and continue to be to this day.

There are two final conclusions I would draw from this passage and from the previous passages in Genesis. God is going to have His way, no matter what people decide to do. He wants our cooperation and fellowship, but He doesn’t need it. What He purposes will always be, with or without us. He will work through us if we will allow, and we will be blessed for our faithfulness. But He will bring to be whatever He chooses. It is important to note that whatever He purposes is ultimately for our good.

The other observation is that sin is progressive and, since Adam, is engrained in all of us. As sin and disobedience progresses, so do the consequences. With the original sin came mortality. As sin advanced, the lifespan of humans declined significantly, from as much as 960 years, slowly downward to less than 100. Sin almost eliminated the entire human race, but through one family, life was spared. And now, because the people once again disobeyed, a