Monday, March 12, 2012

GREAT AND PRECIOUS PROMISES


2 Peter 1:4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

This is an awesome verse of scripture to consider and meditate on. As Christians we have a arsenal of powerful promises from God’s own heart. If we know the will of God for us based on His own expressed word, we have a platform and foundation to not only fight from, but to also WIN day in and day out against the attacks of the enemy. The verse says that these promises are first of all GREAT. They are great because the Word of God according to Hebrews 4:12 is quick and powerful, active and alive. What a potential there is in yielding this battle sword against an enemy who has nothing but lies and empty accusations. The second thing is that these promises from the scripture are PRECIOUS. The definition of precious is an object, substance, or resource of great value; not to be wasted or treated carelessly. When we hold the promises of God into our heart and use them as the Lord intends, we will use them don’t waste the precious resources that Christ has given us.

This verse of scripture gives us insight into how we are supposed to live in the light of God. We are not only students of the divine nature of God, but should be participants in that nature. The Lord has endowed us with the ability to live on a different plane of existence than the rest of the world. So many times we offer the excuse that we are “only human”.  Well, the truth is we are more than human after we receive the person of Jesus Christ. His power and divine nature become available to us to live “in Christ”. We are not only privileged to the power of God to save us from eternal hell, we can be recipients of the power to be set free from the bondages of the enemy that cause us hell here on earth. We can escape the corruption of the world caused by the evil desires and fleshly decay that exists. Knowing that the word has promises is not enough to give us victory. We have to make a choice to appropriate the promises into our unique situations and walk in the faith and assurance that God’s word is the last word on any situation.

We can’t just have a “casual” relationship with the word of God if we are to have the victory. These precious promises are resources that are wasted by Christians on a massive scale everyday. Anytime we yield to the lies of Satan, we are guilty of being careless of the word He has entrusted to us. We need to put some effort forward to being spiritually responsible to use the word of God to its full benefit in our lives. The entire book of Psalm 119 is dedicated to encouraging the believer to have a right relationship with God’s word. Two of the verses that immediately come to mind are Psalm 119:11 and Psalm 119:105. Verse 11 tells us if we hide the word in our hearts we will be protected from the impulse to sin against God. We hide that word through meditation and transforming our minds through exposure to the promises of God. Verse 105 tells us that the word will enlighten the path in which we should walk. Every day we come to crossroads that give us a choice to move in the right direction or the wrong path. An intimate relationship with the promises of God will give us the ability to always choose the right path.

How many precious promises are there in the Word of God? Herbert Lockyer wrote a book called “All the Promises of the Bible” and his list claims almost 8,000 great and precious promises just for us. Let’s make a commitment to not waste one of those promises in our lives.  It will make a difference. Just sayin’…

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