The Promises of God.

The Promises of God.

What are the promises of God? When we think of the promises of God, I know that sometimes my mind draws a blank. I immediately default and think of all the problems in my life, and all the unmet desires that God has yet to fulfill in me. When I look closer, I can see that my unmet desires are my desires and not necessarily what God has promised me in my life. When I think of God’s promises, the first one that comes into my mind is His promise of Salvation, or Heaven after I die. In my opinion, all other desires that I have should be coming from this one desire. To go to Heaven. We know that Heaven is a place where we won’t have to suffer anymore, but I know that this life can be difficult and right now we are stuck here with real wants and real needs.

The first question we must ask ourselves is "Have I trusted Jesus Christ alone for my salvation?" Because without that God is not required to meet any of my needs. Yes, it is true that there is a sort of generalized grace that God gives to the whole world, but there are many needy and hurting people that if they don’t realise that they need to be born again, these needs will go unmet. What I mean by these needs are the deepest longings in our heart to feel loved and needed. To feel that our lives are worth something, that we are significant, because only God can meet these needs. When we are suffering because we can’t afford to take care of ourselves or our loved ones, we shouldn’t feel guilty, but we should have faith. God in the bible says; And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19 NIV)

But the sad reality is that many Christians are needy too, but if we really believed that God would meet our needs it would create in us more faith, because when He meets a need of ours, we would see it as coming from the Hands of God. When we live in unbelief, we can’t say we are Christians, that we are trusting God with our futures, because it takes faith to even say that you believe in God;

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. 11As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” 12For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:9-13 NIV)

 

The Desire to Know God and to be known.

 The greatest need for man and woman is to know God. Some of you might be wondering how to know God. You must have faith to know God. Faith doesn’t come to us unless we are willing to desire that whatever plans God has for us after we believe, we are willing to work out that faith. The reason why I say that is because life is hard, and our lives will be challenging even after we believe, so in a way God is challenging us to have initial faith for our salvation so that He will be with us as Christians during the hard times. The need to know God comes with a condition, that we remain faithful. Despite what some people think, this is less than a demand by our Creator, but a request to trust Him with our entire life.

 If You read the book of Job, he lost everything but his faith. If you read his life story you would think that Job was a failure, but the opposite is true, God tested Job and in the book of James it says; (James 1:2-8 NIV) Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. 6But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.

 It is true that we should not expect to receive anything from the Lord without faith. Why is this so? The bible teaches that without faith it is impossible to please God, (Hebrews 11:6). The reason why if we are to be happy in this life we need faith, is because life by it’s nature is filled with uncertainty. In Hebrews 11:1 KJB it says; Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. It is as though God is saying if you want to believe in me, if you want my best in your life, you must live with the uncertainties of life and that takes faith. Faith is the evidence of things not seen, so we need faith to bring hope into our lives. Faith can move mountains and when we have hope we can conquer our problems and the world.

 Things might not go our way, but that is alright because part of believing in God and living your life with hope in God’s promises is an act of faith. When we leave this world, we want to be remembered as someone who had faith. Faith leads us to Heaven, it conquers life’s problems, it doesn’t keep us from suffering, but it embraces the difficulties in life and is victorious over them, even if they slay us. Beloved,  have faith. This is Mike.