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Keep the Faith…Continue in the Promise(s)
As born-again, spirit-filled Christians, we are overjoyed and confident as we receive our initial assignments from God, confident that we heard His voice with nothing wavering. In progression, we encounter challenges (detours, road blocks, etc) designed by God to develop our character, amplify our faith, and increase the attributes of Christ in us. Before our understanding of the varied sides of God, we were intimidated at the first sight of opposition and thrust in a state of panic and despair. Quickly, we began rebuking the enemy and casting out demons, until we recognized the hand of God in our turbulent (wilderness, furnace, and Red Sea) experiences. It is during these times that we are compelled to take a step back, regain focus, strengthen our hearts with the promises, assemble like-minded support, and choose to believe God. Believe that He is as faithful to complete His promises today in us, as He was in completing His promise to Abraham. God does not change. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrew 13:8).
Neither yesterday nor today is there enterprising zeal, however well intended, capable of offsetting the promises of God. Abraham and Sarah devised a plan in their strength to assist fulfilling the promise of God. The plan included Hagar and produced Ishmael, but not the promised Isaac. What has God promised you? The assignment you accepted in faith…does it yet hold true? Remember the promises the Holy Spirit spoke or whispered as you lay upon His breast, basking in His presence. He has not changed His mind. Those promises will endure the test of truth and the test of time, so dig in. The outcome compels faith and is not limited exclusively to you or me. There is a frequently used colloquial teenage term used in our locale that is quite appropriate here: you are not all that. The focus is not on your or me, but on the almighty God. Thus, we must constantly remind ourselves that fulfilling the promises in our lives is not about us individually, but about His collective plan. Hence, it is the summed purpose and plan of God where we must willingly set our sights: Knowing well that what He promised and what He has begun, in and through us, He will finish for His glory. The promises we receive from the Word of God or those spoken in our hearts yet hold true! Our position is to grasp, believe, and hold on to those promises against all hope, as did Abraham.
We can readily grasp a promise, but how do we believe and hold on to it? Continuous and intense focus on God's promises provides bold, holding-on ability. The promise must speak to us as we arise in the morning, as we go about our daily activities, and it must lull us to sleep at night. Before we know it, our spiritual antennas become heightened and our faith elevated with a cutting-edge belief system. As we continue to read, meditate, pray, and roll over the promises in our soul, we hold on and God faithfully "brings it to pass." Let us not be weary in well doing, we will reap, if we do not faint (Gal 6:9). We will see the promises of God fulfilled as clearly illustrated in the story of Abraham. Abraham and Sarah devised a plan to help God. It produced Ishmael, but it failed to produce the promised child, Isaac. When we are tempted to help God "bring it to pass", it may not be counted against us once we retreat, get back on course, choose to believe God and receive the promises through faith. Our efforts or works, aside from God's instruction, produce make-dos. God is not a make-do God. It is His original word, original promises that He upholds by His power.
Note that God did not recognize Abraham and Sarah's devised, self-motivated plan for Ishmael as unbelief, but rather noted his faith in Romans. The writer of Romans stated, "Abraham staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief." Abraham and Sarah dashed their feet against a stone, but they were not utterly cast down (Ps. 91: Getting back on course, he became justified by faith and later became the father of many nations. Thus, it is written: He believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness (Romans 4:3). WOW, isn't that encouraging! God only sees and records what we do in faith, even if we become sidetracked and try to help God bring a promise to pass. This propelling story of Abraham encourages us to walk each day by faith, receive daily instruction from God, and respond to His inner guidance rather than what we see or feel. Our feelings and perception are subject to change, but not the Promises of God.
Your charged task or assignment is God-inspired. He will direct and merge your daily activities with others, compelling you to willingness, obedience, grace, and patience to "bring it pass." Having accepted the challenge, keep the faith, and you will observe, as a spectator, the execution of God's promises on your behalf. Romans 4:18-21 cited Abraham as believing God: His 100-year-old, barren and weakened body did not control him. He exercised faith with his 90-year-old wife (Sarah) and produced the promised child, Isaac. He became fully pursuaded that God was well able to perform the promise. Likewise, we must be fully persuaded and believe the promises of God contrary to opposing, shrieking circumstances that shoot daggers in our eyes and ears. Abraham refused to focus on both his and Sarah's bodies, but chose to focus on the promise and the integrity of the One who promised. Redirecting his focus expanded his faith; thus, he became fully persuaded that God was more than able to take dead bodies and produce life. That is exactly what the Holy Spirit desires to accomplish in each of us: Display our ineffectiveness, our failures, and our inadequacies and confound the wisdom of this world by producing life from dead, sinful bodies, through our belief in God's promises.
Let us hold on, remain focused on the faithfulness of God and encourage one another along the way. I Samuel 30:6 tell us that David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. God does not withdraw, change His mind or substitute His original promises toward us. He spoke it and He shall "bring it to pass." As stars in the sky and sand on the beach, we are among the many vessels or conduits used in fulfilling His master plan. Let us rejoice, withdraw any attempts to execute the promises in our own strength, and focus on the One who promised.
Is there anything too difficult for God? Is He capable of completing what He has begun in us? Numbers 23:19 states that God is not like man that He should lie; if He spoke it, He will bring it to pass. Therefore, let us continue to believe with absolute certainty that He is able to do exceedingly abundantly, above what we can ask or think (Ephesians 3:20). With that, we must resolve that faith not only pleases God, but faith also brings to pass the promises, plans, and purposes of God. As with Abraham, so with you and me: we believe God and it is counted to us as righteousness. Hangs in there, keep the faith, and continue in the promises! Rosie Bryant |
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