Devotional

In the stillness of night, God draws Abram outside and asks him to count the stars. It is a moment filled with wonder and impossibility. Abram, childless and aging, is given a promise beyond his imagination: his offspring will be as countless as the stars. God doesn’t merely offer encouragement, He binds Himself to Abram with a covenant, cutting through the darkness with the light of divine faithfulness.

But human plans so often try to rush divine timing. Sarai and Abram attempt to fulfill the promise their own way through Hagar, and the results bring pain and division. Yet even then, God sees. He speaks to Hagar with tenderness, calling her by name and offering a blessing. Later, as God renews His covenant with Abram, now Abraham, He marks it with a new name, a new identity, and the sign of circumcision, a reminder that this is a set-apart people, born not of flesh alone, but of promise.