promise

Waiting on God’s Promises pt 4 – VOTD.03.26.18

So, my very dear brothers and sisters, don’t get thrown off course. Every gift God freely gives us is good and perfect, and comes down from the Heavenly Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.  James 1:16-17

It would be appropriate to say, every ‘promise’ God freely gives us is a gift, and as a gift from God, it is good and perfect, just like He is. Last time we began looking at what we can do while we’re waiting on God to fulfill His promises to us. How can we partner with Jesus in responding to His promises as we wait for their fulfillment?

First of all, (and we talked about this last time) we are rejoicing while we wait. We’re not rejoicing about our waiting. We’re rejoicing in Jesus who is with us as we wait because our capacity for His presence is expanded as we visualize the mystery and wonder of who He is.

Secondly, we are patient while we wait. Patience is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. We can be patient because we trust the One who has made the promises. Patience goes against our human nature—but it is so much a part of God’s nature—it’s the way Jesus is.

So as we wait, we work with God as He develops His own nature in us, so we become more like Him; including patience. It is not enough to just ACT patient; we must actually BE patient.

But often, when the waiting gets long, Holy Spirit’s fruit of patience deteriorates into passivity, which isn’t a good way to wait for God’s promises. We need to wait actively. Waiting on the Lord isn’t passive, it’s active. Passivity encourages us to “just get through it”. It is what leads so many Christians to accept something less than the promise of God just to arrive at a solution.

Passivity leads to pragmatism. If we’re waiting for the Lord to fulfill His promises in passivity instead of patience, we’ll often just settle for anything that works…anything that ends the waiting. (Remember Sarah giving Abraham her maid to produce God’s promised child? (Gen 21) Same idea.) We’ll settle for something lesser and miss the real promise that God will produce: “Christ in us, the hope of glory”, not just rescue us from our current dilemmas (Col 1:27). (more…)

Continue ReadingWaiting on God’s Promises pt 4 – VOTD.03.26.18

On the Path to God’s Promises – VOTD.03.20.18

Let joy be your continual feast. Make your life a prayer. And in the midst of everything be always giving thanks. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

In today’s verses, Paul identifies three areas of our lives we must focus on as we wait for God’s promises to be fulfilled to us: 1) unbounded joy; 2) praying continually; and 3) giving thanks to God no matter happens. Last time we began looking at what we can do while we’re waiting for God’s promises to be fulfilled. We began by looking at rejoicing.

As we wait for God’s promises to be fulfilled, we need to be faithful to what we know we are supposed to do. Here are 3 ‘basics’. Psalm 16:11 says, “You will show me the path of life…” The devil is roaming about “seeking whom he may devour”(1 Pet 5:8). Jesus is our safe path (Jn 14:6). Most towns have a Main Street, every Christian has one also. As we stay on it we’re in Jesus’ protective care. But, especially when we get anxious to see God’s promises fulfilled, we look for shortcuts, and we end up needlessly exposed to the enemy’s harassment.

So here’s a few ways to stay on Jesus’ path while we wait:

Don’t look Around (Avoid Distractions)
It’s easy to be lured away into worldly thinking (1 Jn 2:15) and be deceived by the enemy by the “innocent” distractions that are presented to us… To fixate on what is not Jesus; obsessing over something that is beneath Jesus’ high calling for our minds: “So keep your thoughts continually fixed on all that is authentic and real, honorable and admirable, beautiful and respectful, pure and holy, merciful and kind. And fasten your thoughts on every glorious work of God, praising him always.” (Phil 4:8)

Many of us know the Proverb that says, “For as he thinks within himself, so he is”(23:7). We become what distracts us.

Don’t Look Down (Avoid Fixation on the Need)
Never once does the Bible tell us to look down. We are always told to look up. Some of us are so wrapped up in longing over our unfulfilled promise that we exude dissatisfaction with our current state. Self-pity and then resentment press in and our relationships with other believers (especially those who God has fulfilled His promise to) are disrupted or damaged.

Many believers miss God because of negativity…don’t join them. We need to keep our gaze on Jesus, not our problem. And we know that we’re looking at Him because when we’re looking at Jesus we’re possessed by thankfulness instead of dissatisfaction. (more…)

Continue ReadingOn the Path to God’s Promises – VOTD.03.20.18

Rejoicing in God’s Promises – VOTD.03.19.18

If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.  John 4:10

Jesus spoke today’s verse to the Samaritan woman who had come to the well at midday to draw water. Jesus was waiting there and engaged her in conversation. He asked her to give Him a drink from the water she was drawing. Her objection may have been motivated by many things, but the one she chose was, “Why would a Jewish man ask a Samaritan woman for a drink of water?”

The passage goes on to reveal that this woman was waiting for God’s promise of the Messiah to set everything right, but she didn’t seem to be waiting very intently. In fact, she can represent many of us as we wait for God’s promises.

In the busyness of life, we can get distracted from God’s promises and find ourselves marching mindlessly one foot after another, just trying to keep up on a weary journey without much enthusiasm or purpose. How often are we settling for the lesser things, when God is offering a far more magnificent ones? And why do we do that?

The woman at the well thought Jesus was promising to save her from her boring daily task of trudging to the well each day. She didn’t recognize Jesus’ promise initially, though she would receive it eventually. Often we only recognize God’s larger promises—what He’s really orchestrating in our lives—in retrospect. His promise came and we didn’t even notice at the time.

So what are the primary obstacles in recognizing the promises of God? And how can we partner with Jesus in seeing them more clearly and quickly? (more…)

Continue ReadingRejoicing in God’s Promises – VOTD.03.19.18

Waiting on God’s Promises pt 2 – VOTD.03.13.18

Everything we could ever need for life and complete devotion to God has already been deposited in us by his divine power. For all this was lavished upon us through the rich experience of knowing him who has called us by name and invited us to come to him through a glorious manifestation of his goodness. 2 Peter 1:3

Last time we looked at how we rediscover and realign ourselves to God’s promises when the waiting gets long. First we looked dwelling on His loving commitment to keep fulfilling in us all that He promises. Second, we talked about keeping our agreement with God’s promises active and practical rather letting them fade into the theoretical and abstract.

One final way we can keep refreshing God’s promises in our lives and realign ourselves to them:

3) Declare our partnership with God. Declaration allows us to affirm our passion and re-calibrate our thinking to align with His. Once we know the specific promise God wants to bring into our daily reality, we can be quick to declare our agreement and commitment to partnering with Him to see that promise become reality.

It works like this: “Jesus has given me everything that pertains to life and godliness to become all that He promises.” AND “Because I have this promise from Jesus, I will see the promise fulfilled.” This isn’t presumption. We have Jesus’ promise and what we’re doing is aligning our mind, will, and emotions with that promise. (more…)

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Waiting on God’s Promises – VOTD.03.12.18

The One who began this glorious work  in you will faithfully continue the process of maturing you and will put his finishing touches to it until the unveiling of our Lord Jesus Christ!  Philippians 1:6

A common question when considering the promises of God is, “Why haven’t my promises come to pass yet?” What does it mean when the gap only seems to widen between promise we’ve received and promise fulfilled? And what do we do with the time in between?

Often, when we find ourselves waiting for God to fulfill some promise He’s given, it means that God is creating a new level of partnership and fellowship with us – and you and I are invited to join Him. He’s making us able to receive the fulfillment of the promise – capable of handling the responsibility that goes along with any of the gifts that He gives us.

And sometimes when we find ourselves waiting a long time for God to fulfill His promises, we become distracted from those promises. We remember them, but we’ve stopped actively agreeing and aligning our hearts with God’s intention. When we do that, we step out of the place of agreement that He has for us and lose some of the and fullness that is needed to walk out His promises.

So how do we rediscover and realign with God’s gifts of promise?
1) Hear the unchanging commitment of God in His promises. Dwell on His loving commitment to keep fulfilling in us all that He promises, just as today’s verse promises us. (more…)

Continue ReadingWaiting on God’s Promises – VOTD.03.12.18

The Promises of God – VOTD.02.19.18

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we already possess what we have asked of Him. (1 Jn 5:14)

Hope, peace, and joy are only a few of the promises of God to every believer. His promises are both universal and unique – That means He has promises that apply to all believers and He has promises that apply only to me or to you, individually. Either way, it is in these promises that we walk out our Christian journey.

But it’s important to understand that God’s promises are not always inevitable – We may or may not experience all that God has promised us. Yes, God always keeps His promises. But often, whether or not we experience the fulfillment of one or more of His promises depends on whether we receive it and act on it. God’s promises are more like an invitation that He wants us to agree to join Him in.

So God has given each one of us an invitation, but we still need to RSVP. For example, He promises us, “Open your mouth and I will fulfill it. And you will see. The words that you speak, so shall it be.” (Ps 81:10) Now, that’s a promise. He’ll give us what He wants us to say, and He’ll back up the Words He puts in our mouths. But it depends on whether our “mouths” – our appetites for Him – are open to receive how much of that promise we will experience in our lives.

The point is, when it comes to God’s promises to us, we’re not passive in receiving His promises. We are co-laborers with Him. He is the King and we are the bride and we are called to actively walk out the faith that He provides us and by that faith to walk in the promises He has made. (more…)

Continue ReadingThe Promises of God – VOTD.02.19.18