For the past several months, we have considered how nations and individual Christians can access God’s promises. It was all sweet. You could decree a thing, and it would be established unto you. God now answers your prayers, and so on. But do you know that not all of God’s promises are sweet? As we look to another year, it is critical to remind ourselves of that fact. So, in this post, we consider one of God’s reverse promises.
Jesus said to His disciples (you and me, if we are true believers), “In this world you will have tribulation: but be of good cheer.” That is one of God’s reverse promises. Observe, He did not say perhaps you will have tribulation. He also did not promise you trouble. Tribulation is much worse, a taste of what those who do not make it to heaven at the rapture will experience. This is, no doubt, one hefty promise.
Jesus makes it worse by telling us to be of good cheer. Unless you are a true believer, committed to doing whatever Jesus says, that will be a problem. Not only is He giving you a negative promise, but He also wants you to be happy and cheerful about it! Man, like believers have to be crazy and illogical to follow this Jesus. But you either take it or leave it.
After all, His Father (and our Father if we are believers) is not logical either. What logical father would ask his son to die for criminals? Mercifully, the Bible is filled with examples of believers who accepted God’s reverse promises with the good ones.
Those Who Welcomed God’s Reverse Promises
The patriarch Job should immediately spring to mind. He famously asked his wife: “Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?” Click on the link and find that the bible refers to his wife as a foolish woman. She was happy to accept good from above but not any of God’s reverse promises. The bible assures us that the foolish says in his heart (where it matters) that there is no God.
And since we are not foolish, we know that there is God. We therefore appreciate that we must accept God’s reverse promises along with the good ones. I hope I speak for you as well. And, if I do not, please make sure now that you are walking in agreement with God. You do that by placing your trust in Jesus today. Then, when God’s reverse promises come, you will accept them along with those that are sweet. And everything will work out well, like it did for Job.
King David was one man who understood this concept. He appreciated that, along with the sweet promises God made to him, there were some undesirable ones. God pronounced a sentence against him for carrying out a census. When God gave him three options, the king applied wisdom and chose the punishment that should come directly from God’s hands.
King David, A Man after God’s Heart
That King, whom God blessed above all other kings, embraced God’s reverse promises. He even thanked God for affliction. Read about it in Psalm 119:71: “It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes.” How many of us can do that? Very few, I imagine. It should therefore not come as a surprise that King David was God’s favorite king. The others appear to be nothing but placeholders in the bible.
The Apostle Paul was another man who rejoiced in God’s reverse promises. Paul’s position in 2 Corinthians 4:9-11 can put a believer to shame. But I would rather take it as a mark of what is possible. In that passage, this apostle who penned half of the New Testament wrote: “We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed, always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.”.
Wow! He is almost up there with Jesus, who was the embodiment of embracing God’s reverse promises. Wait until I have a father who plans to send me to die, even for good people. That is our master and our example. I pray that God will grant us the grace to embrace God’s reverse promises as we rejoice in the sweet ones.
Learning From Those Who Embraced God’s Reverse Promises
These men who embraced God’s reverse promises had some qualities in common. Identifying them might also help us enjoy those promises of God that are less than desirable. The beatitudes in Jesus’ sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5) contain a list of such qualities.
For us to enjoy and embrace God’s reverse promises, we must not be arrogant. Otherwise, when tribulation comes, we are likely to say, “Why are you doing this to ME?” The world is NOT about us. We must be poor in spirit and be meek. All these examples were meek. Consequently, when God’s reverse promises came, they were not hurt and discouraged.
They also hungered and thirsted for righteousness. A man or woman who thirsts for righteousness is concerned with right standing with God. They seek first the kingdom of God. All the inconveniences on the way to that goal are just that, inconveniences. It is like studying in the university; you know your goal, and all the studying is not a problem.
Paul even said so in 2 Corinthians 4:16, “Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.” That is a man who was ready for God’s reverse promises. Am I? Are you?
We could go on and on, but choose to conclude by looking unto Jesus. He is the author and finisher of our faith. See how He dealt with God’s reverse promises. “Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Jesus, our Lord and Master, endured. God will help us.
Maranatha!
