Bible scholars can tell you the precise number of promises God made to His children. Some may even be able to pinpoint the locations of many of such promises. You hear them say, “In 2 Corinthians 5:17, God promises to ….” Then they will tell you the promise and lead you to pray it into your life. This series is not about that at all. We are not here to help you locate or claim the promises of God.
Here, we seek to understand why the promises of God tarry in our individual lives. Why, for instance, do I claim the promise in Job 22:28 and all my decrees still go unestablished? That extremely popular promise says you will decree a thing and, it shall be established unto you. So, why do I decree health for my bones and I am still ill? That is what we shall be examining for the next so many weeks. And if Jesus issues the command for us to come home while we are still at it, so be it.
We pause here to appreciate all who stuck with us last year. It takes a mature believer to read about positive problems week after week. Well done! God often takes us through the wilderness to bless us. The response to that series was quite encouraging. Particularly noteworthy was the one to the post that “thanked God for hell.”
We thought it might be off-putting but it received a great response: “Crime would be pervasive if there were no prisons.” Wow! That was an eye-opener. Hell is the prison for all who offend God by rejecting His offer of salvation. May we never land in that eternal prison, in Jesus’ name. Then, we received solid support during our period with technical glitches. God bless you.
Why The Promises of God Tarry
Please observe that we do not imply that the promises of God will never be fulfilled in our lives. They are merely waiting for us to understand what triggers them. Once we obtain that understanding through these series, all the delayed promises will manifest in our lives. That is the very purpose, to see promises manifesting in the lives of believers. Indeed, why do the promises of God tarry in some lives, in my life?
We start with faulty teaching which leads to a lack of understanding. You already know that the purpose of all teaching is to give us a greater understanding, regardless of the sector. It could be medicine, engineering, philosophy, or trading. That is critical because the Bible says in Hebrews 11.3 that by faith we understand. That means if your understanding is faulty, your faith may be faulty. And the only way to obtain from God is with faith. Without faith, all the promises of God may remain void in a life.
Back to faulty teaching. Some fine bible scholars make a difference between a covenant and an agreement. Let me confess that though those arguments sound highly polished, I have never understood the difference. If you are kind, you will say it is because I am coming to God as a child, not polished enough to complicate issues. You could be right. As I see it, a covenant is an agreement God makes with us. If you do this, then I will do that. That is the basis of all agreements. If you come to work regularly, I will pay you a salary.
God Is a God of Covenant
The Bible says the same thing about Moses’s upbringing, “nurse this baby for me and I will give you your wages.” Find that in Exodus 2.9. Many of Jesus’ parables contain the same thought. “Go and work in the field and I will pay you.” I believe the computer experts refer to that as the ‘If-Then-Else Statement.’
Some people claim that marriage is also a sort of agreement or covenant. If you bear my name and children, I will care for you. Perhaps you know this one. “When you mind God’s business, God minds your business.” So do I. And I happen to subscribe to it. If I mind God’s business, all the promises of God can manifest in my life.
So, we start by understanding that a covenant is an agreement between God and us. Since God keeps His part of the covenant, we should see His promises manifesting in our lives. If you go to work regularly and perform your duties, your boss has to pay you. How much more God. He will keep his side of the bargain if we keep our side of it.
Sometimes, breaking down a deep concept into its simplest form works for us. Mathematicians do that all the time. To see the promises of God manifesting in our lives, we may have to become like mathematicians. That is what we shall be doing for the foreseeable future and God’s promises will start to erupt in our lives. Invite your friends to share in this exciting journey. Let them use the subscription form in this post.
Maranatha!
