Great and Precious (6)

He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. Romans 4.20, 21

The way we live
No matter what you do in life, you will pursue promises. It’s the way people live. As an image-bearer of God, you are oriented toward the future, toward what you hope and long for, and that to which you aspire. You will set your mind and heart on a raft of promises – things and conditions you believe will provide you with the maximum happiness and wellbeing – and everything you do, every day of your life, will strain toward the realization of those promises.

But we can never out-conjure God when it comes to promises. He offers us exceedingly great and precious promises – the promises made to Abraham – and invites us to come, by faith in Jesus Christ, and receive the grace of those promises, and the fullness of life with God. God invites us to partake of Him in a bond of righteousness, peace, and joy that nothing can overthrow and that is richer, fuller, and more durable than anything the world can offer (2 Pet. 1.4; Rom. 14.17, 18).

So how do we lay hold on the promises of God? How do we live toward the promises, so that we may enjoy this full and abundant life He plans for us? What’s the way into these better and precious and exceedingly great covenant promises of God?

Paul tells us briefly how we can begin to organize our lives around the promises of God and focus our energies on realizing them more and more, day by day.

Understand the promises
First, we need to make sure we understand the promises of God, and that we see them as far greater and more precious than any other promises. Abraham struggled with this. He kept trying to make God’s promises fit his fleshly experience and expectations. It took many years of waiting on the Lord, listening to Him, repenting of sin, and getting additional clarification before Abraham finally understood the enormity of what God was promising.

So we too can have our aspirations and hopes muddied by mere self-interest, complacency, or doubt. We keep wanting to draw up our own promises, and we hope God will endorse them; and this causes us to lose sight of just how precious and very great God’s covenant promises are. If we would know these promises, we must give ourselves to study, meditation, and waiting on God to expand our vision and understanding, until the greatness and implications of these promises become fixed in our minds and hearts, until we can see these promises coming to realization in our lives and Personal Mission Fields.

Give glory to God
Then, and every day, we must give glory to God for His promises – praising and thanking Him daily, talking the promises back to Him, and exalting Him for such great grace and mercy, rehearsing our plans and visions before Him with gratitude and praise, claiming some progress in His promises for each day. We can also glorify God by talking with others about His promises and urging them to lay hold on them as well.

As part of this, try to envision, day by day, what your life will look like as you take the next step toward one or another of God’s promises. For each of the promises, every day, what’s your “next step”? What will indicate progress in knowing the Lord and living in Him? Take this mindset toward laying hold on the promises, and you’ll find a sure way into them for every area of your life.

For example, as Paul explains, Abraham was promised a child. Although he was well advanced in age, and he and Sarah had not had relations for many years (cf. Gen.18.11, 12), he knew what the next step needed to be, and he took it in faith – even though it must have seemed an unlikely course of action. What will the next step look like as you reach out to bless others, to persuade or influence the ways of things in your world, to trust God for His daily provision, or to grow in His blessings, to fill your Personal Mission Field with Jesus (Eph. 4.8)?

Act on the promises
The more clearly you can see what the promises will look like incrementally and day by day, the easier it will be for you to take the final step, and to act as if those things you have envisioned were already real in your life. If you were to know more of the blessings of God, how might you praise Him? Or how might you seek His counsel for more of your life? If you were to be a blessing to the people around you, what would that look like, and how can you live toward that vision today? Discern your course of action for living toward the promises each day, then act in obedience to God’s promise, and the Spirit of God will meet you with power, right where and when you need it.

It’s only as we live toward what God has promised, bringing our lives into line with His expectations, relying on faith to tap into His transforming power, and going into our daily lives believing that we already possess what God has promised for every area of our lives – it’s only then that our feet will be on the path that leads to those promises being truly and amazingly ours.

Living by the promises day by day we move toward them more and more.

Study, praise the Lord, envision His promises unfolding in you, then act in the belief that He will do it. This is the way to lay hold on the precious and very great promises of God. This is the way to live in the bond of righteousness, peace, joy, and transforming power which is the covenant of our God.

For reflection
1.  How would you explain the exceedingly great and precious promises of God to a new believer?

2.  How do the promises of God relate to the Gospel of Christ and His Kingdom? Should we include some mention of these promises in the Good News of Jesus? Explain.

3. What can keep us from living toward the promises each day? How can we overcome such obstacles?

Next steps – Preparation: For each of the six promises of God, lay out a few “next steps” that can get you moving more steadily toward the promises of God. Write them out. Begin taking those steps, reviewing your progress at the end of each day. Share this exercise with a Christian friend.

T. M. Moore

This is part 2 of a 5-part series, Living toward the Promises. You can download this week’s study as a free PDF, suitable for personal or group use, by clicking here. You can learn more about living toward the promises of God by ordering a copy of the book, I Will Be Your God, from our online store (click here).

We invite you to register for the free online course, One in Twelve: Introduction to Christian Worldview. In this course T. M. Moore provides a sweeping panorama of how life in the Kingdom of God unfolds in an age in flight from God such as ours. Set your own schedule and study at your own pace. Learn more, and register for One in Twelve, by clicking here.

The Lord uses your prayers and gifts to help us in this ministry. Add us to your regular prayer list, and seek the Lord concerning whether He would have you share with us. You can contribute to The Fellowship of Ailbe by using the contribute button at the website, or send your gift to The Fellowship of Ailbe, 19 Tyler Drive, Essex Junction, VT 05452.

Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.