Hebrews 12:1 God wants me to run without a lot of weight, with patience and long suffering, and without sin. These things can very easily beset me.

Circumcision of the Heart II

Genesis 12:1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 God asked Abram to move and he became a nomad. After leaving Egypt with his nephew, God spoke to Abram again, gave him a vision, and renewed His covenant in chapter 15. This is a formal agreement with God (Covenant of the Pieces). In chapter 16, Abram's servant has a child named Ishmael. Abram still believed in God even though things were not progressing the way he thought they would. In chapter 17, 24 years after the inital promise, Abram was 99. God asked Abram to circumcise the whole family to demonstrate to all that God had made a covenant. God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. But when Abraham was 100, Isaac was born.

Romans 2:29 Consecration of the heart indicates something more after repentance.

Mark 6:45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52 The people in the boat were followers of Jesus. They had just watched him miraculously feed 5,000 people. It says their hearts were hardened despite this.

My ideas and opinions may not match up with God’s and this can cause hardness of heart. It is possible to come from “exile to promise” with a certain hardness of heart. I am a follower, but I have a need of perfection.

Abraham and God never gave up on the promise during the 25 years of waiting. He was still God's man during that time; he continued to have faith.

In Mark 1, there are descriptions of Jesus healing the sick and diseased. This also symbolizes exile from God. Healing is the return to the promise.

Job 23:16 The heart is softened with salvation. A hard heart has difficulty hearing the voice of God. God must crack the hard shell of the experience of life, even when people want to be a follower of Christ.

Romans 4:11,23,24,25 God accepted Abraham because of his faith, even before the circumcision. This can apply to us.

Romans 2:29

To be in agreement with some things we are now outside of the agreement of other things. We can’t move into and out of the covenant at will.

Sometimes it takes years to have the softness of heart that is able to be molded by God. I can be remade to look very different from how I started this journey.