*An audio version of today's devotional is available on Leading The Way's MY Devotional podcast.

When God commands us to begin counting stars, it can be easy to abandon the call when circumstances in our lives begin to obscure our vision.

Read Genesis 12:10-20. God had told Abraham to count the stars in the night sky, for his descendants would be just as plentiful. But when famine hit the land of Canaan, Abraham stopped counting. He lost sight of God’s promise, and he panicked. Rather than turning to God in faith and seeking His help, Abraham trusted in his own wisdom and made a plan. And according to his plan, he and Sarah traveled to Egypt to escape the famine that threatened their safety in Bethel.

So much can go wrong when you begin to trust in Egypt to save you, whatever your Egypt may be. Your Egypt may be your net worth, your financial portfolio, or a relationship. Whatever it is, you will find that the moment you place your faith and trust in that idol instead of God, your intimacy with Him will go by the wayside. Your personal affection toward God and His people will become cold and icy, and your walk with the Lord, distant.

All this happened to Abraham when he stopped stargazing, stopped counting on God’s promises. His godless logic told him that he could survive among the Egyptians, that he could outsmart them, and it nearly cost him everything as he placed his wife in danger. Ultimately, Abraham left Egypt for Canaan with Sarah, but only by God's mercy and divine intervention and only after being reprimanded by a pagan Pharaoh.

Abraham’s experience may sound disheartening to those of us who have fallen short time and time again. Yet through it all, we see God’s grace in redirecting Abraham when he misses the mark, and we see how Abraham learns from these experiences and grows into the man of faith extolled in Hebrews 11.

Have you allowed your circumstances to drive your attention from the promises of God to the worries that surround you? If so, it's never too late to turn back to God. Just as God showed grace and mercy to Abraham, He will do the same for you. He cares about you more than you know, and He stands ready to answer your prayer.

Prayer: Father, forgive me for not trusting You when I am faced with difficulty. I long for my security to be rooted in You. May I cling to Your Word and Your promises, relishing Your grace and mercy. I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9).

Learn more in Dr. Michael Youssef’s sermon Counting Stars in an Empty Sky, Part 2: LISTEN NOW | WATCH NOW

Check out more from Dr. Michael Youssef, here!