Thursday, January 7, 2016

Eight Promises For Three Premises

Job 11:13-18


To many of God's promises there are premises, conditions we need to fulfill to claim the promises. Here we have three premises, that if we do these three things, God will promise to do eight things for us. Eight for the three.

Surrender your heart to God -- Premise #1

turn to Him in prayer -- Premise #2

and give up your sins, even those you do in secret. -- Premise #3

Then you won't be ashamed; -- Promise #1

you will be confident and fearless. -- Promise #2

Your troubles will go away like water beneath a bridge, -- Promise #3

and your darkest night will be brighter than noon. -- Promise #4

Then you'll rest safe -- Promise #5

and secure, -- Promise #6

filled with hope -- Promise #7

and emptied of worry! -- Promise #8

No matter how hard we try, we can never out-give God! God never does ask a lot of us, what He asks is very simple. But simple doesn't mean easy. What God asks of us is actually impossible for us to do on our own; we need His Holy Spirit living in us to give us the power to do what He asks. Then He lavishes His love upon us and showers us with His uncountable blessings!

God always gives us everything we need, and much more than we need. He gives out of His unsearchable abundance, very generously. That's just who He is. His desire is for all to come to repentance, to realize our hopeless state before Him, and allow His only Son Jesus, His Christ for us, to pay our eternal debt for us on the Cross. He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, when there is no more hope for them. He wants for everybody to turn to Him. But most won't. But to those who are willing and admit to God that they deserve that death, then He puts into them His own Holy Spirit to make their spirit alive, and adds to that all His other blessings, none of which we could ever deserve.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!