• Read Genesis 15

MORNING— Faith at Low Tide

• Focal Passage: Genesis 15:1

“After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, ‘Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; Your reward shall be very great.’”

Low tide is predictable along the coast, but it’s rarely pleasant. When the water pulls back, what was once hidden is exposed—seaweed tangled around dock posts, driftwood stranded on the shore, scars beneath the surface that high tide kept out of sight. What once felt easy to navigate can suddenly become treacherous.

Life has low tides too.

Genesis 15 opens after these things—after Abram’s victory in battle (chapter 14), after rescuing Lot, after refusing the spoils of Sodom. By all appearances, this should have been a spiritual high point. Instead, God speaks directly to Abram’s fear. That alone tells us something important: even after great victories, faith can ebb.

Abram’s low tide came in the form of unanswered promises. God had promised a nation—but Abram was still childless. Time had passed. The waves of hope had receded, leaving questions exposed. “What are You really doing, God?” he asks.

God doesn’t rebuke Abram for his honesty. Instead, He reassures him: “I am your shield.” Before addressing the promise, God addresses the fear. Abram’s security was never meant to rest in circumstances, success, or even fulfilled promises—but in God Himself.

Low tide reveals what we’re standing on. And in Genesis 15, Abram learns that faith isn’t only for mountaintops. It’s for the exposed places, the waiting places, the places where the promise feels distant and the night sky feels very large.

Reflection:  What does it look like for you to walk faithfully with God in the midst of a culture that often pulls you in a different direction?

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EVENING— Count the Stars

• Focal Passage: Genesis 15:5-6

“And He took him outside and said, ‘Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.’ And He said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’ Then he believed in the Lord; and He credited it to him as righteousness.”

When Abram voices his discouragement, God does something simple but profound—He takes him outside.

Away from the tent.
Away from the questions.
Away from the closed space of anxious thinking.

God invites Abram to lift his eyes. The same God who named every star now asks Abram to count them. It’s not a math exercise—it’s a reminder. If God can hang galaxies in place, a single promised son is not beyond His reach.

Verse 6 stands as one of the most important statements in all of Scripture: “Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness.” Abram doesn’t fix the problem. He doesn’t see the fulfillment. He simply trusts God in the gap between promise and reality.

Later in the chapter, God seals His covenant in a striking way—passing alone between the pieces of the sacrifice. Abram does not walk through. God does. The message is clear: this promise rests on God’s faithfulness, not Abram’s strength.

At low tide, we are tempted to strive, explain, or panic. Genesis 15 reminds us that faith is sometimes nothing more—and nothing less—than trusting God when we cannot yet see the shore.

The same God who walked between the pieces for Abram would one day walk the hill of Calvary for us. When our strength gives out, His covenant does not.

• Reflection:  What promise of God are you struggling to believe tonight—and what would it look like to lift your eyes instead of rehearsing your doubts?
• Closing Prayer:  Faithful God, when my hope feels exposed and my strength runs low, remind me that You are my shield. Help me trust You in the space between promise and fulfillment. Teach me to believe You—not only when the tide is high, but when the shore is bare. Tonight, I rest in Your covenant faithfulness. Amen.