BELIEVE HIS PROMISES

            As children of God, it is very important that we keep the commandments Jesus gave us. But it is also important for us to know the promises He has given us so we can claim them for ourselves. If we learn His promises and set out to claim them as our own, we will be drawn closer to Him. 2 Peter 1:2-4 tells us the promises of God are given so that we “may be partakers of the divine nature”. His promises are not hidden from us. They are all in plain view, written down in the Bible. God not only tells us what He will do for us, but He tells us what we need to do to make them effective in us personally. That is where the growth comes in. I wonder just how many of these “great and precious promises” are actually active in our lives? There must be hundreds of promises, so we can’t look at all of them, but I would like for us to examine a few.

Isaiah 26:3 - “You [God] will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.”

Perfect peace brings confidence, calmness and steadfastness even in the storms. It comes from being at one with God as His desires become our desires. What pleases Him pleases us. What grieves Him grieves us.

Who can have this perfect peace? Those whose minds are stayed or focused on the Lord. When we are driving, we are aware of what is around us and behind us, but our focus in on what is in front of us. If we turn our main focus to either side or behind us, we will go off course and probably wreck, causing damage to ourselves and others.

The same thing happens spiritually when we take our eyes off Jesus. We get off course and cause damage to ourselves and others. That’s why Scripture tells us to look to “Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith.”

We do need to be aware of what is happening to our left, right and behind us, but we need to be more focused on Jesus. If we constantly look at all the chaos around us, we will go off course. We need to be aware of what it happening in the spiritual realm. We can only do that when our eyes are on Jesus and we are listening to what He is saying.

Psalm 91 is another scripture that offers us rest. “He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall remain stable and fixed under the shadow of the Almighty [Whose power no foe can withstand].” Who can find security and rest in God? Those whose minds are focused on Him, who dwell in His secret place, and stay close to Him. There is rest and peace for the people of God, but we have to activate it by staying in His presence.

STAY FOCUSED ON GOD.

Isaiah 40:30-31 - “But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”

How can we activate this promise? By waiting on the Lord. That means to watch for Him, not wondering if He will show up, but being certain He will. We are just waiting for His timing, which is always perfect. Waiting means to expect with full confidence. When we watch and wait for Him, He does several things for us.

First, He will renew our strength. When your driver’s license expires and is no longer valid, do you just throw it away and quit driving? Of course not! You go to the DMV to get it renewed. They can put it back in full force and you can be on your way again.

When our spiritual strength expires, God will renew it and will put it back in full force if we wait on Him. He gives us a second wind that pushes us forward.

He also tells us we can “mount up on wings like eagles”. Eagles don’t flap. They catch the wind current and they soar. We don’t have to flap, either. We can catch the current of the Holy Spirit and soar by His power and strength. The wind of the Spirit will take us in the right direction and will take us higher than we have ever been before.

We can also run without growing weary and walk without fainting from fatigue. It is clear that we will have to walk and run sometimes. We will climb mountains and walk through valleys. But we won’t be weary and we won’t faint. In crisis times, we can depend on Jesus to increase our hope, our strength, our wisdom and whatever else we need to keep us moving ahead. Because God meets us right where we are. Especially when He knows we have gone as far as our own strength can take us.

WAIT ON THE LORD.

            Proverbs 3:5-6 - “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.”

            Trusting someone means we rely on their character, integrity, strength and ability. We believe in them and have confidence in their counsel. When we have a problem to unravel or a decision to make, Jesus should be our first thought. He is the only One Who knows our past, present and future.

            If you needed to ask for directions to a certain place, would you want to ask someone who knew nothing about the territory, or someone who was familiar with every square inch of that territory? Of course we would want someone who knew what they were talking about. Otherwise, we would probably be led astray. If we rely on Jesus we can be sure He will lead us in the right path.

            If we lean on (trust in) our own understanding and try to make decisions based on our own limited knowledge, we will continually get off the right path. The more wrong turns we make, the harder it is to find the right way again.

We have no comprehension of what lies ahead, so when we try to make a choice in our own wisdom, it’s like rolling dice or flipping a coin to see what we should do. We will not know until we see the outcome of a situation whether that choice was right or wrong. If we acknowledge God’s character, integrity, strength, wisdom and power, we will put our trust in Him and follow His leading even when it does not seem to make sense to our understanding.

            If we trust Him, stop leaning on our understanding, and acknowledge that we can rely on Him completely, He will lead us in the right path.

TRUST IN AND ACKNOWLEDGE THE LORD IN ALL THINGS.

           

1 John 5:14-15 - “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.  And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.”

This promise is directly linked to the others. But all promises are directly linked to our relationship with God. Having our petitions heard and answered by God comes when we know Him, trust Him and our desires are at one with Him. Then we see the promise brought to pass.

PRAY ACCORDING TO HIS WILL.

The promises of God are to move us forward in our walk with Him. These are just a few of God’s promises. I encourage you to search them all out and claim them for yourself. Your life will be enriched as your relationship with God is deepened.

If you are a child of God and are not seeing the promises fulfilled for you, look for the obstacle that is blocking the promise from coming to fruition. Make sure you are doing your part and that you understand the nature of the promise correctly. God never breaks a promise. He says that He will not withhold any good thing to His children, and all His promises are good. However, He will withhold things that we ask for when He knows they would harm us in some way. He covers us from evil, and sometimes we take it as unkindness toward us. But God is kind and He loves you with an everlasting love.

“For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.” Psalm 84:11