#godspromises | itsawonderfilledlife

Posts Tagged ‘#godspromises’

The Good that God Gives

Posted in GOD, life, Walking with God, WONDER, tagged #godgivesgoodgifts, #godisnotagenie, #godspromises, #iwillneverleaveyou, #thegoodthatgodgives on June 1, 2018| Leave a Comment »

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Did you know that God is not a cosmic equivalent to a fairy godmother?

I know that …

yet I often live and speak as though I was completely unaware of that reality.

I live and think that my version of good is the same as God’s version. I sometimes think that I deserve something (though, in the moment I wouldn’t necessarily confess that was my thinking) and that because I need it God will provide it.

That sort of thinking creates a genie-like description of God,

but God is not a genie.

What God promises is not heath, wealth, perfect children and that we will always be loved by our friends, neighbours, co-workers or families.

God promises:

that we will be saved (Romans 10:9) … if we confess that Jesus is Lord and that God raised him from the dead
that we will not be tempted beyond what God has given us the ability to resist (1 Corinthians 10:13) … NO excuses
that we can have the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives … if we repent and be baptized (Acts 2:38) … we have to repent!
that he will not leave us alone (Deuteronomy 31:6)

As I was typing those four promises, I realized that three of them are … conditional. They are promises that are predicated by our actions.

We are saved if we confess that Jesus is Lord and that God raised him from the dead.
we will not be tempted beyond what God has given us the ability to resist
we can have the Holy Spirit in our lives if we repent and be baptized

We first have to act in faith, then God will fulfill his part of the bargain.

The only promise that does not come with a condition is that God will not leave us alone.

In the human experience one of the most common fears is loneliness. Perhaps the greatest gift, the greatest promise that any can human being can receive is a promise to never leave us.

No fairy godmother, no genie in a bottle and all the magic that goes with them, no amount of money or security or even health can compare with knowing that there is one who will always be with us.

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The Hardest Part of Love is …

Posted in GOD, WONDER, tagged #fatherabraham, #genesis17, #godspromises, #the hardestpartoflove on September 13, 2016| 1 Comment »

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I remember dreaming and anticipating those rare middle school dances …

Girls on one side of the room, guys on the other.

MUCH too much make-up.

Not enough deodorant worn by many.

Too much cologne worn by many more.

Couples dancing with barely any part of their bodies touching, or so close there was no room for the Holy Spirit, let alone Jesus (a little Christian dating humour … not humour that my kids would find funny, but humour that is funny in my imagination).

And I remember the song, by Straight Lines, (the hardest part of love is) “Letting Go”.

Recently, I was reminded of it when at a Christian Conference Centre, listening to Charles Price speak on the story of Abraham and Isaac. This is my personal favourite story from the Bible, and one that I have written about in a 3-part blog series:
https://itsawonderfilledlife.net/2015/03/24/gods-test-abraham-father-of-isaac/

Years before Abraham took his son on a hike up the mountain to make a sacrifice that Abraham didn’t want to make, God had made a promise to Abraham that he would one day be the father of many nations (Genesis 17).

Why would God ask Abraham to sacrifice the son who was the premier star in his sky? And why would Abraham actually follow through with God’s instructions?

God had promised that Abraham would be the father of multitudes, but Abraham had to let go of his human understanding of how that would happen, in order to trust that God would keep his promise, and that Isaac would not simply be a falling star.

Remember, Abraham had learned this lesson, the hard way. When God had taken his good ‘ol time in fulfilling his promise, Sarah and Abe took matters into their own hands and utilized Haggar to begin Abraham’s nation. This had not turned out so well, for anyone involved. And this is often what happens when we attempt to fulfill a God-sized promise with human-sized perspective.

When we believe that God has made a promise to us, we begin to dream of how that promise might be fulfilled. But, we need to let go of our dream, releasing it back to the one who has hung the stars in the sky. For it is through him that our dreams are born, and it is through him that our dreams come true.

The hardest part of love is letting go … but what we get back, in return, could fill the night sky with the brightest lights.

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