God’s word, the Bible, makes some extraordinary promises to Christians.  Extraordinary may be an understatement as I am speaking of the life changing promises of God.  What I am going to share is what God did for me and how it can change your life, make you whole, heal you, grow you and move you beyond the stagnant waters of a routine faith.  I know that sounds like a tall order, but my God is very tall and in His graciousness, He took me aside this past year to remind me of some old things and teach me new things to challenge me to go deeper.  Jesus said “Come to Me all of you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matt.11:28-29).  Do you believe that?  Do you believe Jesus?  I thought I did, then life happened.  I have been able to quote this verse for many years, but intellectual passive faith and active faith are two very different things and now God was calling me to continue up the mountain.  What I am going to be sharing is what the Lord did to show me how to put on His yoke, unclench and find rest for my weary soul.

It was about this time last year that the Lord challenged my faith and asked me just how much I trust Him.  After an extended period of emotionally draining, life changing situations, I had arrived at a point in time where God had my full attention.  I have been a Christian for more than half my of life, I have read the bible numerous times, I pray daily, I have scripture hanging on the walls of my home, I am a diligent student of biblical doctrine and if you’re trying to think of a scripture, there is a pretty good chance I can tell you the chapter and verse.  That all sounds like good stuff, but the truth is that is all meaningless if you are not walking by faith, day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment, in every situation.  The Bible often instructs us to walk… “so walk in Him”, “walk by faith”, “walk in the same manner as He walked”, “be careful how you walk”, “walk in truth”, “walk by the Spirit”, “walk before Me”, “walk in love”, “walk in the light”, “walk in the newness of life”, “walk in the way of righteousness”, “walk in integrity” and the one that often comes to mind for me, “walk in a manner worthy of His calling”.  You get the idea, we are to “walk”, that is, we are to have an active faith living a life of faith in a consistent manner regardless of circumstances.  That does not mean that we do not grieve or be joyful or express other emotions, it just means that the manner in which we respond to life should reflect faith in an all powerful, omniscient God with deep affection for us.

As I began to reflect, read, pray, listen and contemplate, I began to ask more serious questions about the promises of God.  The bible has over 5,000 promises from God to us, so it occurred to me that if I believe the attributes of God truly reflect who He is; if I believe that His word is inerrant; if I believe that He truly loves me and demonstrated His love for me by sacrificing His Son; if I believe that He has plans for me that are good and not evil; if I am truly an adopted child by His choosing, then it would seem that I should have absolute assurance in the promises of God.  If our doctrines are true and our theology is correct, then the Promises of God must be true as well.  If they are real, how can they be realized in my life?  Can they be more than wall decor or text on a coffee mug at the local Family Christian store?  Is God’s word truly living and active?

This journey began with everything that I just described and continues to this day.  In the midst of this process, sometimes it was difficult to see progress, but in very timely ways God used people as sources of encouragement to share what they’ve noticed in my life.  God had allowed me to sit in my ashes for a period but the time would come to continue my journey and start making my way up the mountain.  The resolve came through prayer, “Lord, I am going on this journey with You, but I will need the hinds feet that you promised…and I will need Your strength because mine is depleted…and I will need Your wisdom as Your ways are higher than mine…and I will need some encouragement because I am already a little hesitant to do this, but I know too much truth about You to not go.”

What I am going to share are the lessons I learned about the promises of God and His faithfulness.  Some of the things I was shown are that I had lost sight of His purpose for me.  I learned that grief had become an idol and it had become an excuse to not walk.  I saw that my focus was wrong and not pleasing to God.  God showed me the nuances of my lack of trust in Him.  God challenged me to scrap my priorities for His, to think different, to pray different and be willing to put anything I cherished on the altar.  Those Abraham-Isaac moments made me realize that my life was filled with idols.  It became clear to me that everything that I took pride in robbed God of His glory and He made it very clear that He will not give His glory to another.  I found myself asking questions that I wasn’t sure I wanted answers to because I knew it would mean more ashes.  These are some of the questions I wrestled with, but asked anyways:

How do we cast all of our cares on Him? (1Peter 5:7)

How are we to be anxious for nothing? (Philippians 4:6)

Have you truly healed me? (Jeremiah 30:17)

How do you forgive when there has been no repentance or sorrow? (Matthew 6:14-15)

How do we love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us? (Matt. 5:44)

How do we take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ? (2Cor.10:5)

How do we put on the full armor of God in the real world? (Ephesians 6)

How can our speech always be filled with grace as if seasoned with salt? (Col. 4:6)

How are we to be at peace with all men? (Romans 12:18)

How do you overcome evil with good? (Romans 12:21)

How can your mind be renewed to be transformed so that you may know the will of God? (Romans 12:2)

How do we walk in humility and gentleness with patience, consistently showing love? (Ephesians 4:2)

How do I make sure I have pure motives from a clean heart? (James 4:3)

This is just the tip of the iceberg.  In the coming weeks and months, I am going to share from my experience with God right up to today as well as whatever comes this year.  I have a scripture hanging next to my bed and I read it every morning:

“God has not given us a spirit of timidity or fear, but one of power and love and discipline.” – 2Timothy 1:7

I start my day with it every morning to remind myself that God does not want us to operate from a position of fear and weakness, but by the Power of His Spirit, driven by His love, because God is love and perfect love casts out fear.  This verse has really become a prayer to try and demonstrate this truth in my life daily.  As I consider everything God has showed me, there is going to be a couple of recurring themes:  1) The purpose of theology and it’s role in living, healing and growing spiritually; 2) the purpose of doctrine so that we can walk in a manner worthy of His calling and perform our Christian duty; and lastly 3) the Power of the Holy Spirit in our lives to lead, to convict, to discern and to give us peace much different than the peace of the world, all for the purpose of godliness.

God challenged me to take Him at His word, that He is my Wonderful Counselor and the Spirit of Christ lives in me as my Helper (John 14:16), literally (gk) “to walk alongside and help, encourage and exhort.”  I hope that this will be helpful for other believers to heal, grow and walk in a manner worthy of His calling.  We are to have an active faith, but often sin, the flesh, spiritual enemies, and our own selfish ambitions can prevent us from growing deeper in intimacy with God if  we are passive in our faith.  I have shared a few things in the past few months, but the heart of what I am going to share is still to come.  I have created a new category called “Promises of God” in which I will file posts related to this post as I anticipate writing on other topics as well.  The Lord is still teaching me a lot, but what He has shown me thus far demonstrates He is faithful to His promises.  I hope you will be blessed as I share the rest of the story!