He Promised ALL Things

In 2 Pet 1:3, the apostle Peter spoke of the divine power of God having given us ALL things that pertain to life and godliness. The apostle Paul echoed a similar message in his writing to the Romans in chapter 8 verse 32. He said that if God did not spare his own Son but gave him up to die for us, that he will also through his son give us ALL things. Little wonder Paul himself proclaimed that he could do ALL things through Christ who strengthens him when he wrote to the Philippians.

The keyword throughout these statements is ALL. Not some, not many, not few but ALL things are promised. That is a precious promise of a never-failing God. One who would rather see the earth come to an end to avoid the unfulfillment of his word; and yes, he is that serious. He is the one that is reliable, capable and specialises in the impossible.

Despite ALL these promises, it can sometimes become difficult to appropriate the blessings to ourselves.  And that happens mostly because we do not possess the prerequisite for receiving the promise – faith.

One element within these promises that is important to note is that all these promises are to be experienced through the knowledge of the word of God. Because faith comes through the knowledge of God. When we build our faith to the point of taking God by his words even when our present physical experiences or circumstances do not align with the word of God, then we start our journey towards receiving the blessings that come with the promises.

The fact that God makes his promises with a very strong and certain language without mincing words or trying to give caveats is really interesting. When he says he has given us everything we need for life and godliness, do we believe it when our situations are not aligning or when we are not seeing physical evidence to support that assertion? What about when he talks about giving us everything? Does he really mean it? What does everything or ALL things really mean? What does it include? Is it just eternal life? What about material things?

You see, we can discuss all the what abouts or what-ifs. It won’t change the fact that those certain statements of promises were made. To experience them, we need to reflect on our lives and our ways to make sure that we are in tune with God, to ensure that we are obedient to his words and that we are seeking him with all our hearts. Because whoever seeks God with all their hearts will find him. Instead of asking the what abouts or what-ifs, we should be looking inward and surrendering ourselves to him, to allow him to use us, to allow him to direct and guide us through his words. When we do this, we will be well on our way to enjoying the blessings of the promises.

Count the Stars

Sometimes in our own lives, we go through moments where it feels/looks like there will be no light at the end of the tunnel, as though our world is falling apart. The challenges of life which we all face can be so daunting that some people choose different ways to either cope with or deal with whatever situation they are in. Whether it is grief, pain, loss or whatever. In fact, some people accept their deplorable conditions sometimes and for good reasons too. When the physical evidence/fact is so convincing, how can you dare to believe otherwise? It is a difficult and a near impossible thing to do from the natural point of view. But for those who believe in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross and the impact the word of God has, there is often another way. The fact/evidence can always be weighed in relation to what the word says. Because whatever we go through, there is a word that God has spoken concerning such challenges or situations.

For example, James 5:13-15 says:

Is any one of you suffering? He should pray. Is anyone cheerful? He should sing praises. Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick. The Lord will raise him up…. (James 5:13-15)

When in suffering, pray; when you are cheerful, sing; when sick, call for elders to pray and you will be healed. There is that certainty that the Lord will do what he says he will do, but how often do we find the courage to believe! You see, God gives us a new frame of reference concerning any difficult situation and surely with regards to other life issues more of such can be sought out in the scriptures. A frame of reference is said to be a set of criteria or stated values in relation to which measurements or judgements can be made. For the believer, the word of God is the frame of reference. Every judgement or decision should be made with that as the bases.

Consider the man Abram, who had no child and both he and his wife had grown old to the point where they could no longer naturally bear children. But God changed their frame of reference from the natural using a natural phenomenon as a physical reminder – God asked him to count the stars. Basically, he gave them something else to consider. Abram was to count the stars if he could; because his offspring were going to be as much as the stars (Gen 15).

But how did this help Abram? Well, certainly it did because he believed and it was counted for him as righteousness. And I’d like to believe that Abram would go out in the night day after day to count the stars after he received that promise. He must have attempted to count the stars and realised it is was an impossible task. And this must have brought about renewed hope and joy at the thought of having that many children.

But what do stars have to do with babies? There was not a single “star” in Abram’s life yet and the situation naturally did not favour him. Yet he believed against the staggering odds and it was counted as righteousness. For Abram, there was no hope prior to God’s word to count the stars, hence accepted the fact/evidence that the servant will become the heir. But then God showed up and gave a word. Not just a word but a physical frame of reference too. Something that Abram could look up to every night to remind him of the promise. And eventually, he had Isaac, the child of promise.

You see, the difference between the fact/evidence is the word; what changes facts into other facts is the transcendental – the word of God, which is alive and is like a two-edged sword and capable of dividing asunder to the very soul. If we lift the word of God concerning any situation or fact/evidence, we obtain another frame of reference, another evidence that says, count the stars because even in childlessness, there are children, in sickness, pray and you will be healed; in joy, sing praises.

Your stars may be different depending on your circumstance, there could be the physical elements that you can look at and remind yourself that God had made a promise that can never go unfulfilled. Your stars could be a mental picture of what has been promised or a physical thing that helps you visualise what has been promised. It could be your blessings, as the popular hymn says; count your blessings and name them one by one and it will surprise you what the Lord has done. So, get in the habit of ‘counting your stars’ to obtain a new frame of reference while you are waiting on God.

 

 

You are a Blessing!

Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; And you shall be a blessing.” – Gen 12:1-2

God said that he will bless Abraham and make him a blessing. To do so, he instructed Abraham to leave his present country into the land for which he, God was going to show him. Now, this instruction or commandment came with promises.  It is quite significant to notice that whenever God calls his people, he instructs them on what to do and gives them a promise. A similar thing is noticed throughout the scripture.

For Abraham, he promised a great nation and numerous blessings. For Moses and the Israelites he promised a land flowing with milk and honey. And for Christians today, he made a number of promises, and one significant promise is:

“And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.” – Matt 19:29

Being a Christian may require you to make sacrifices; sometimes you may be a loggerheads with family members when you choose to become a Christian, sometimes you may be picked on by work colleagues, you may be called a weirdo. And permit me to say that if the world does not question some of our resolves and believes then it may be worth having an introspection to see if we are really living for God, because Christians ought to be transformed and not conform to the world. So, the question is, has God called you out of the world into his marvelous kingdom of light? Then you can be rest assured that he will take care of you, he will bless you in ways you can never imagine. And most importantly, he will make you a blessing to your generation.

See, God makes us instruments for which his blessings flow to other people. Therefore, we are conduits or instruments or vessels. We are stewards of his blessings, so whatever he gives us, he expects us to use it to our benefit as well as to other people’s benefit. Notice also that when God blesses, he uses people to do so, hence he wants to make use of every one of his child to bless the world.

Worthy of note also is that Abraham’s blessings lay in the land for which God had sent him. If he did not go where God was leading him, the promises of course would not have been fulfilled. So, he had to leave his comfortable home and go into his land of promise. In his land of promise were several challenges. So the story of Abraham also teaches a significant lesson about perseverance. Abraham had to go through a lot, he went through childlessness until his adult life. But God came through for him. It shows that even when we are where God wants us to be, sometimes we may have tribulations, but we need to be of good cheer because Jesus Christ rightly said that he has overcome the world (John 16:33).

Today, we are all Abraham’s descendants because he obeyed God and went to his promised land. Imagine what will happen if we just let go, follow God and let him lead us to our promised land. The promised land could be a job/career, school, location, marriage, friendship. It could well be giving up bad habits, trusting God more, worshipping him in spirit and in truth, fellowshipping with one another or praying more. Or it could be starting up a business or charity organization, or even witnessing to more people about God. Whatever it is, be encouraged and walk into your land of promise this new year 2019 you will be filled with his blessings, hence you will become a blessing to others.