Standing on the Promises
Just as our bodies need good food to become healthy and
strong, our minds need good thoughts to become healthy and strong. Scripture says: “As a person thinks in his
heart, so is he,” (Proverbs 23:7) What we think and believe shape the type of
person that we become!
Scripture says that God offers each of us a great life and
He creates us for a life of good works.
Scripture says it this way: “We are his workmanship, created in Christ
Jesus for good work” (Ephesians 2:10a) But in order to do those good works and have
that good life we have to run our life on good thoughts. And that means we need to stay away from bad
thoughts. And we all know how difficult
it is to stay away from some bad thoughts!
Scripture says,” A person shall not live by bread alone, but
by every Word that comes from God.”
(Matthew 4:4) You will do better
staying away from bad thoughts by filling your mind with thoughts from God’s
Word.
Also Scripture says:
“As newborn babies desire the sincere milk of the Word that you may grow
thereby.” (1 Peter 2:2) God’s Word is our spiritual milk and our
spiritual food and we can build ourselves up spiritually on the Word. Just as eating fruit and veggies help us grow
a strong physical body, reading God’s Word helps us grow a strong spiritual faith. Scripture says: “Faith comes by hearing,
hearing the Word of God” (Romans 10:17)
God gives us his Word to nourish us spiritually and to feed our
faith.
As we walk through life doing the good works we were given to
do, we will face problems. There is a
spiritual battle going on in this broken world between good and evil and we
will be caught up in it. So God has
given us armor and a sword to use in fighting this battle. (Ephesians 6:14-17) And the “sword” God gives us is the “Word of
God” or the Bible. (Ephesians 6:17)
We need to learn to use our swords (the Scriptures) so we
can fight and not give up. Just knowing
God’s Word and remembering certain verses in the Bible can make all the
difference when a problem looks bigger than we think we can handle. A person can actually “stand on the promise”
and count on the truth of the Scripture when the problem arrises.
One of the many Scripture promises I like to count on to
help me get through life is found in Philippians 4:13. It reads: “I can do all things through Christ
who strengthens me.” I stand up in front
of a large group to give a lesson and look out over the crowd. I am a big chicken and soon a little voice
inside my head says: “You are going to make a fool of yourself in front of all
these people. See you are getting a
headache now and soon you won’t be able to finish this lesson. Then what will you do?” My thinking patterns are actually preparing me
to be defeated before I ever start.
But then I take out
my “sword” which is the Word of God and remind myself that: “I can do all
things through Christ who strengthens me.” And I thank God that He is there
strengthening and empowering me. I am
not trusting in my own strength, but His sufficiency is now my sufficiency. Then I move on and enjoy giving the
lecture. This little verse teaches me
that I can do anything I need to do in life through Christ. Anything!
It’s there for me to believe and use.
All I have to do is stand on the promise.
My next favorite scripture is Romans 8:38-39. This scripture proclaims God’s love for us and
keeping that thought always in our minds can help us make it through tough
times. These verses read:: “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor
angels nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,
nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate
us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
My grandmother once told me a sad story of a friend of hers named
Blanche whose husband left her taking their two young children with him. Months later when Blanche was finally reunited
with her children, the children didn’t want to have anything to do with their mother! Their father had gotten the children away and
told the children that their mother was a bad person. Unfortunately the
children believed their father and refused to even speak to their mother. Blanche’s heart was broken but she hoped that
time would heal her relationship with her children.
Unfortunately time passed and her children never allowed
their mother back into their lives. Blanche
began suffering from depression and felt that her life had lost its meaning. If her own children rejected her she must be
unworthy. At church the pastor was
preaching sermons about God’s love for his children and Blanche was encouraged
to think that God loved her so. She
began to pray every morning before she went to work and her faith was strengthened
by remembering that God accepted her and that as God’s dearly beloved child,
her life did have great value and meaning..
Romans 8:38-39
promises that God will not reject us and Blanche became persuaded that that was
true. She repeated over and over to
herself the many verses in Scripture that tell of God’s amazing love for his
children. Her faults may cancel out her
family’s love but nothing would ever cancel out God’s love! Blanche held onto that truth and it kept her
going! And we need to hold onto that
truth too! The wonderful truth that God
loves us with an everlasting love.
This week we have learned two lessons - that we can do
anything we need to do through Christ Jesus our Lord. And that God loves us more than we can
imagine and that He will never stop loving us.
Next week we will check out more amazing promises from the Bible –
promises that will help us to keep doing those good works that God sets before
us. Promises to count on and enjoy and
take with us on our journey through life. Promises that we can stand on! Tune in next week and you won’t be
disappointed!
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