GOD'S PROMISES TESTED

 

GOD’S PROMISES TESTED

Ps. 119:140 Your promises have been thoroughly tested; that is why I love them so much. NLT

One thing that we have in common with all humanity is that everyone goes through times of life that are not easy. Everyone needs help beyond themselves from time to time. For the believer, we find our greatest source of help comes from God's Word.

A multitude of saints who have gone before us have had to put God's Word to the test as they struggled through life. There has never been a time in history in which God's people have not needed wise counsel and renewed hope from God. For most who have preceded us, life has been very harsh. People have been harassed and killed for centuries because of their faith. There is not one promise of God that has not been put to the test over the years. And, every promise of God has been proven to be trustworthy.

Everyone who stands on the promises of God knows that they shall not fall. God always does what He says He will do. He never fails to see His children through whatever they may face in life. Over and over again, God's children proclaim His faithfulness. When difficulties arise, we don't always recognize the workings of God in our crisis. But as we make it through and look back, we can clearly see the hand of God on our lives. We see that God's promises are trustworthy all the time.

Don't you just love God's promises? There are promises of God to see us through every situation of life. They remind us of a God who cares. They speak of God's ability. They speak of God's desire to be involved in every part of our lives. They speak to our needs today and the life that is still to come. They are rich in wisdom and they guide us through life. Hold them close. Let them govern your heart. Let them captivate you and thrill your soul. Let them hold you steady in the storms of life.

A word of caution: when claiming the promises of God, be sure that the promise is for you to claim. Some promises were given only to the house of Israel and to try to make them fit into our situations does not work. Wrong applications of God’s promises lead to wrong doctrine which leads to misled people which leads to a people who question the truthfulness of God’s Word. Study God’s Word and understand the context in which promises are given for us to live by.

GUIDED BY GOD'S WORD

 

GUIDED BY GOD’S WORD

Ps. 119:133 Guide my steps by your word, so I will not be overcome by any evil. NLT

Our only protection from evil is to let the Lord take His Word and direct our paths. We are not capable of “winging it" on our own and staying pure before God. If you are not asking the Lord to take His Word and lead you through your journey of life, you are depriving your soul of its very essence for life. You cannot sustain a relationship with God without His Word. You will do nothing but starve yourself to death and give Satan fertile ground upon which to thrive. You will succumb to evil if you neglect God's Word in your life. Guaranteed.

You cannot be led by the Word unless you know the Word. You cannot know the Word without reading and meditating on it. If you don't put in the time, you will do the crime, it's as simple as that. No one has the strength of soul to resist temptation apart from the Word of God. Without the Word to guide us, we will be easily led astray. The Word shows us the pathway to holiness. We learn what not to do and what to do. God does not lead us into confusion. He clearly marks out the path for us to follow. It is imperative for the health of our souls that we equip ourselves with a working knowledge of God's Word.

We choose daily whether we will be overcomers of evil or victims to it. We choose daily whether or not we will arm ourselves with the Word or not. No one has any excuse. We have time for what we want. There is no activity on earth that is more important for the life of the soul than God's Word. If there is the will to spend time in the Word, there will be a way. Adjustments may have to be made in daily routines, but there is a way. Does your relationship with God mean enough to you for you to do it?

TREMBLE IN FEAR

 

TREMBLE IN FEAR

Ps. 119:120 I tremble in fear of you; I fear your judgments. NLT

For the most part, we no longer fear God, which I believe is strange. Think about it. God, the creator and source of all that is, calls us unto himself. God, who spoke all things into being by the power of His word beckons us to come to Him. God, who is the judge of every person who has ever lived, holds us accountable for how we live before Him. We will be judged by His holy standards, and yet, we do not fear Him? It makes no sense at all to me.

One of the big contributors to how far we have fallen into sin is our lack of fear of God. We chide the hellfire and brimstone preachers of the past, yet when they began to fade, we quickly began to travel on the slippery road to moral destruction. When the Church lost her sense of fear of God, she became lax with sin and began to excuse it under the guise of God being a god of love and mercy, full of grace. For some, it has led them to believe God would not even send anyone to hell, which has led many to even question whether or not hell even exists.

A lack of fear leads to a lack of respect. God ceases to be the holy judge and becomes our friend who would never exclude us from His fellowship in heaven. God has become less relevant in our lives and we scarcely consider it important to stay in touch with Him. Because we do not fear Him, we do not consider reading the Bible and prayer essential parts of our lives.

There is a desperate need in the Church today for a resurrection of our fear of God. We will continue to drift away from Him and water down the Gospel message if we don't. Each one of us will stand before God and give an account for how we have lived our lives and our eternal destiny will be determined on the basis of our righteousness in Christ, our holy living.

Do you fear God? Does it cause you to tremble knowing that He will determine whether or not you will spend eternity in heaven or hell? Does it cause you to tremble knowing that He will judge us by His standards? If not, perhaps you need to reconsider who God is and your accountability to Him for how you live.

DETERMINED TO OBEY

 

DETERMINED TO OBEY

Ps. 119:112 I am determined to keep your principles, even forever, to the very end. NLT

How determined are you really? Do you just say you are, or do you actually strive to live by God's principles? Let us pause for a moment today and think about this. In order to live life God's way, we must be quite familiar with what His principles are. We must understand what God demands of us before we can apply them to life. We must study them enough that we know them by heart.

Once we know them, we must embrace them. It's not enough to recall God's principles with our minds; we must want to live by them with our hearts. The desire to live by them comes from a genuine love commitment to God. It involves time spent alone in fellowship with Him. It involves a desire to please and honor Him with our lives.

God's ways become our way for life. We determine in our hearts to live by God's rules daily, all the days of our lives. We so value their role in our lives that all that really matters to us is to let them be who we are in the world. They become how we live and govern how we think about things. In other words, we so identify ourselves with God and His ways that they become our natural selves. We are clearly seen as a people after God's own heart, a holy people.

How determined are you to let God's principles be your guide and identity in life? Do you live consistently by God’s principles or just when it’s convenient for you to do so? Are you in private who you strive to be public? Can you honestly say that who you are and what you do are determined by God and not yourself or the world around you? Are God’s ways your way of life?

GOD'S LAMP AND LIGH T

 

GOD’S LAMP AND LIGHT

Ps. 119:105-106 Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path. I've promised it once, and I'll promise it again; I will obey your wonderful laws. NLT

I wonder, how brightly does God's Word shine on the path of your life? Is it barely noticeable, or can everyone tell that you are influenced and driven by it? Does God's Word keep you from sinning, or are you prone to wander away from its truths? Do you rely on it to keep you pure in heart, or does it even matter to you?

God gives us His Word to show us the way to Him. It reveals our sinfulness and His holiness. It instructs us on how to get to God. It forces us to look inward and deal with the sin it exposes. It shows us what we must be doing in order to be found acceptable to God. It magnifies God. The Word strips us of our excuses and leads us into holy living.

Do you know God's Word better than any other source of knowledge you may have? Think about it for a moment. In order to do certain jobs or to use certain skills, we had better know what we are doing. We spend a lot of time, energy, effort, and often money learning how to do what we do in life for a living. Some of us become quite knowledgeable and skilled on how to do our tasks. Why do we pursue those things and so often neglect to put an equal or greater amount of time into learning Biblical truth and how to apply it to life? After all, what is more important, our knowledge of the ways of the world or the ways of God?

The ability of God's Word to light our path and influence our lives is dependent on the time and effort we put into knowing it and living it. You can pretty much tell who does and who does not spend quality time in the Word by how they handle life and the wisdom they have. Obedience is not possible without a consistent quality time in the Word. And, I do not believe that there can be quality time without quantity time. It takes time to discover the truths of God that are there in His Word.

Do you dare make a promise to God today that you will get to know the Word and live it?

GOD'S ENDURING WORD

 

GOD’S ENDURING WORD

Ps. 119:89-90 Forever, O Lord, your words stand firm in heaven. Your faithfulness extends to every generation, as enduring as the earth you created. NLT

All of creation as we know it will one day cease to be. God promises to create a new heaven and a new earth after He purges the world of sin. We look at the world we live on, the stars in the sky, and the planets scattered throughout the universe and we see what man has seen for centuries. We are lulled to sleep thinking nothing is ever going to change, but it will. We don't know what the future habitat for mankind will be like. We can only imagine some it as it is revealed in the Scriptures.

The only thing we know for certain about what will be is that God and His Word are eternal. What God has spoken in the past holds true for today and will be true forever. We cannot count on a whole lot in this life, but we can always count on God and His Word. God said exactly what He meant to say and He means every word of it. God's Word is binding because God is never changing. He is as He always has been and always will be.

We can apply the Word to our lives with confidence because we know it comes from God and is meant for us today. We know it has proven to be true in every generation and it is impossible for it to ever fail.

"Thank you, O Lord, for great is your faithfulness through all generations. Thank You for your Word which governs our lives and leads us safely home to your presence. Help us to always let it teach and guide us in your ways, O Lord. In Jesus' name. Amen."

THE VALUE OF GOD'S WORD

 

THE VALUE OF GOD’S WORD

Ps. 119:72 Your law is more valuable to me than millions in gold and silver! NLT

Perhaps you are reading this today and you have millions stashed away. Perhaps you don't have any financial pressure or worries in life. If this is you, praise God for your riches and let Him have access to your heart so that you can use what He has blessed you with for His service and glory.

If you are not blessed with riches, chances are good you wish that you were. You long to be able to not have to worry about where the money is going to come from to pay your next bill or you will not worry about how to stretch your budget so that you have enough money to put food on your table or provide clothing for your family. If this is you, trust God. He has promised to provide for our daily needs. He will not let you down in this. Keep striving to grow in faith and obey Him and He will take care of you. He must always be first in your concerns of life.

No matter what your position in life is, God's law must be more valuable than anything else. It is imperative for the well-being of our souls to value God and His Word above everything else. Why? Because where your treasure is, that is where your heart is also. What you set your heart on is what becomes your god. If you love earth’s treasures more than you do God, you are in danger of hellfire.

We will not take with us even one penny we have earned or accumulated on earth. Even if it were buried with us, it would simply rot away in our graves with us. Your relationship with God is all that is going to matter when you die. Put the Lord before everything else and live like it. If you do, great will be your reward in heaven.