All tagged promise
This morning let’s contemplate Isaiah 33 and specifically verse 16. In this chapter God's people are under attack and are praying for help, and in our target scripture verse Isaiah is reaffirming God's provision and defense. There is one core truth about being afraid, and it is this… when we remove the cause of our fear we find that our fear goes with it. So, are we trusting the Lord to take away our troubles, and our cares? Do we believe that He can, and will, honor His promises to us?
This morning we are contemplating the fact that God means what He says and that includes His Word regarding prayer. Scripture tells us as much. First and foremost to understanding this is the promise that God can't lie. But, how about us? We can, and we do lie, so how is it that we are able to come to the Lord in prayer? How is it that we can possibly be worthy of entering into His presence? It is by His perfect Word, and the promise He gives us in Jesus our redeemer.
It is true that people do pray more when they are in trouble, and they are also inclined to criticize God in the midst of great trouble, but in God's eyes our lives here are just a portion of the journey... When many are lost to calamity we have a tendency to think they are gone because this life is all we know, but in God it is not the end... Evil never triumphs, the journey is not complete. We already know the end of the story, and God is victorious and dries the tears of the martyred saints. Jesus has already risen and the promise of His return is real… He will return to claim His bride, and the dead in Christ will rise to meet Him. Are we ready?
On this day, Christmas Eve, we are in great expectation of a tiny baby’s arrival into the lineage of David... the Christ Child, Jesus, Emanuel, the Son of God. He will be born in Bethlehem, and a star will shine bright inside each of us to show the way to where He will be held to His mother’s breast. Are we ready to make the journey to where He will be born into the world; into each of us? Is the anticipation of His coming calling us even now to where Angels will announce Him?
God blesses us and we are thankful for our blessing, but does God’s commitment to His blessing end once it is given? Does the Lord bless us and then simply walk away? Sarah had a son but her blessing didn’t end there. It continued when the Lord provided a sacrifice for him later in life as Abraham was preparing to sacrifice him. Again, when God gave the Shunammite woman a son at Elisha’s request it didn’t end there either… later in his life he died, and God raised him from the dead for her. Our blessings are not simply events… they have eternal lives and continue on. Do we believe, and have confidence in this, or do we see our blessings like lightening in the sky that flashes and then is gone? The Shunammite woman didn’t see her blessing as having an expiration date… do we?
In today’s modern world we are confronted by change on every side, and the pace of that change can seem overwhelming at times, yet the real challenge isn’t recognizing the individual changes, or reacting quickly to today’s problems, the greatest difficulty for us is in coping with the anxiety and worry that comes along with them. We know that scripture tells us not to worry, and to find peace in Christ, and yet despite this promise, we often can’t seem to escape these feelings. The tightness in our chest remains, the hopelessness courses through us, and the fear causes us to feel massive releases of adrenaline; all of which work together over an extended time to harm us physically, emotionally, and spiritually. So how do we overcome these difficulties, and find the promised calm and peace again?
In this time of pandemic we have had our eyes fixed dramatically on dying, and many of us have watched as our loved ones have wasted away until death finally claimed them, and they were committed to the ground. Some of us are mortally struggling for our own lives right now, but although the prospect of recovering our health might often seem bleak, take heart, because as Christians, we have already won victory over death in Christ... not bodily, but eternally in our inner spiritual selves. Each day as our health dwindles away, the eyes of our soul are opened wider to our faith, and the peace of God draws nearer.
How many times has Jesus blessed you by pouring the grace of God over you as He interceded on your behalf? Sometimes though we have to wait, and on such occasions it becomes easy for us to wrongly reach the conclusion that God’s blessings are not eminent, are uncertain at best, or perhaps that He is granting them sparingly, one drop at a time. In truth His blessings flow like a gushing spring if we will only believe, and have faith in His promise to provide for us. The Lord sent his own Son to redeem us by His suffering and death so why would he not give us the relatively small things we ask for in life?