God's Promise: Wherever You Go

 

    The promise to be wherever you go comes with a command.  It is a command on how to utilize your faith and put it into action.  God commands that you be strong and courageous.  If you trust Him, then you do not doubt or have fear when the unknown comes, feel unprepared, or an obstacle that you can't defeat on your own.  

    God's promise was made after Moses died and his apprentice Joshua was taking over the leadership role of the Israelite nation.  It was Joshua's job to help each tribe get their portion of the promised land.  He understood that they were not going to walk in and the people just give it to them.  They had to conquer what was rightfully theirs from God.  

    This was a big and intimating task, but Joshua had the faith to make it happen.  He never did waver in all the time in the wilderness and he was not going to waver now that he was in charge.  His faith was stronger than intimidation, fear, or anxiety.  He appeared self-reliant because he leaned heavily on God.  He was not perfect, but his faith made him the right leader for this place in history.  

    This command and promise still stand today.  Giving God the authority in your life is not a suggestion.  It is a command that comes with the power of having God's presence in your life.  This power enables you to over any fear.  It will help you become bold as you conquer any negativity in your life like dismay, depression, discouragement, dread, or doubt.  As you become bold your panic will disappear.  

    If you reject God, then you will not have His presence, protection, or comfort in life.  He will give you over to the life you chose and allow you to face the consequences alone.  Your life is your testimony.  Once day you will face God even if you do not believe in Him now.  What will your life say about you?  Will it declare that God was with you or you did life on your own?  Is God your salvation or your condemner?

    If you trust God enough not to fear the future, unknown, or unexpected, then you will become strong and courageous.  When you embrace this faith you understand that God is with you.  He prepares the way.  He watches your back.  He protects you when you sleep.  He is there even when you can't feel His presence.  The promise He made to you is to be actively present in the good times and with every challenge you face.  He is your reassurance in life that makes you brave.

Deuteronomy 31:7-23, Joshua 1:9, Psalm 27:1, & Jeremiah 1:8

God's Promise: Never Forsake

 

"Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the presence of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you must go with this people into the land that the LORD swore to their ancestors to give them, and you must divide it among them as their inheritance. The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” Deuteronomy 31:6-8

    The promise of God to never forsake His people was the last promise that Moses gave the Israelites before Joshua succeeded him and they entered the promised land.  This promise is meant to encourage God's people.  If you hold onto this promise, then you should never feel alone.  People come and go. Leadership changes.  The world may feel uncertain or even isolating, but God is with you no matter what happens from day to day.

    The Israelites would enter the promised land and it would become their land, but first they had to remove all the people who had settled in their land.  They had to fight and do their part to have the promise that God had given them.  It was intimidating.  They had been slaves for generations, then wonderers in the desert.  They had never fought in a battle or any significant way.  They had to rely on this promise to believe that they would be victorous.

    Like many of God's promises, this one has some stipulations.  God does the heavy lifting and the hardest parts, but He expects His people to do what He commands.  Here He commands His people to be strong, courageous, not afraid, discouraged, or panic.  Not afraid is to have confidence in God to protect you without doubt.  In return God would go ahead of His people.  He promised never to abandon, be with you, and never forsake you.  

    When life feels hopeless, depressing, or forsaken then you can hold onto this promise.  It will help you be bold and courageous to face whatever in life you need to face.  The blessing comes from being steadfast and faithful when things are not certain.   The Israelites got the land that they had been promised hundreds of years before.  You get eternity in Heaven.  Trust God to protect you now without doubt.  

    You may feel unequipped, unqualified, or intimated.  That is okay.  Trust God more than your feelings to be there doing His part to make sure your calling comes has a path.  There is not room for doubt.  Doubt kills the momentum that faith builds.  You are in this world for a purpose.  Do not deny yourself that and the blessings that come with obedience by allowing doubt or fear into your heart.  He will be with you every step of the way for you to complete your calling in life.

Deuteronomy 1:29, 31:6-8, Joshua 1:5-6, 10:25, 1 Chronicles 22:13, 28:20, & Hebrews 13:5

God's Promise: Seek & Find

 

    The promise God mad with Moses was that if His people sought Him, then they would find Him.  When you want to know God with all your heart and soul, then He is going to build a relationship with you.  The kind of relationship you have with God has always been up to you.

    Moses provided this promise to God's people before he died and they entered the promised land.  He wanted them prepared to accept the blessings of God and be able to keep them.  It is a promise, but Moses also warned them about idol worship and disobedience.  Moses concludes that if you want God in your life, then you will have Him.  

    The key to this promise is sincerity.  You have to want God with all your heart and soul to obtain His mercy and hold onto His hope.  This is a promised based on devotion.  You get what you really want.  The closer you want to be to God, the more He will draw you in.  The more you lean on Him in trust, the stronger you become in your faith.

    The promise of seeking and finding God comes down to you recognizing that you need Him.  You can't use, manipulate, or change God.  You go to Him willing to meet Him at His standards.  He meets you where you are and helps you to become the person you were created to become.  It starts with you acknowledge sin as sin.  You see the sin in your life and you want to be rid of it.  This is how you come to God on His terms.  In return He forgives you and equips you with what you need to sin no more.  

Leviticus 26:39-40, Deuteronomy 4:29, 30:1-3, 2 Chronicles 15:4, Nehemiah 1:9, Isaiah 55:6-7, Jeremiah 29:12-14

God's Promise: Be Present

 

" I will put my dwelling place among you and I will not reject (despise) you.  I will walk among you and be your God and you will be my people"  Leviticus 26:11-12

    This is the promise God made to swell among His people.  It is a promise to be present and not abandon them.  He had them create a physical space for Him that they took from camp to camp until David was eventually able to make a temple for God.  Today the church building is a representation of God's home, but in reality the Holy Spirit lives in everyone that belongs to God.  He made this promised from the beginning to the end of the Bible to encourage you to follow Him faithfully.

    If you choose to believe in Jesus, declare God your savior, and walk in faith following Jesus for the rest of your life, then you are a true Christian. That means you have the Holy Spirit living within your soul as the seal that you belong to God.  He is your intercessor to God explaining your heart to God and giving you wisdom from God.  He prays on your behalf when you don't have words.  He is your insurance of your eternal inheritance.

    This is the first promise that God will have a real relationship with His people where they can feel safe.  It was made once the Israelites had been freed from Egypt for a little while.  They had time to get used to their new reality, but they were still like children wondering about needing direction and instruction.  He was giving them security to stand tall with dignity to follow Him.

    The biggest part of this promise is that God promised never to abandon or reject them.  Once you are a part of God's family you will never be rejected.  However, you can't just call yourself a Christian and be done with it.  It is choosing to follow Jesus anywhere He directs you.  You may not understand your instructions.  The instructions could actually scare you, but you have to trust Jesus enough to listen to the Holy Spirit.  To tune out the Holy Spirit is to reject instruction.  Faith is the key, but obedience is the action that makes faith real.

    The strength behind this promise is having a close relationship with God.  They did not physically see God, but they knew He was there.  He had shown up enough where they did not doubt that He was with them.  Salvation provides you with a healthy family bond that comes with boundaries, endless love, protection, education, wisdom, and more.  Being a part of God's family gives you a since of belonging.  Being chosen by God should make you feel many things, but especially thankful and special.  It is a powerful promise to hold onto.  

Exodus 6:7, 25:8, 29:45, Leviticus 26:11-12, Joshua 22:19, Psalm 76:2, Jeremiah 7:23, 11:4, 30:22, Ezekiel 11:19-20, 36:28, 2 Corinthians 6:16, & Revelations 21:3

God's Promise: Long Life

 

Honor your father and mother, so that you may live long full life in the land the Lord your God is giving you. Exodus 20:12

    The fifth commandment is also a promise.  The first four commandments focus on your relationship with God.  This is the first of his commandments about relationships with other people and setting boundaries.  It is first because of how the family dynamic is a representation to the world your relationship with God.  It is the first commandment with a promise.

    To honor your parents is to honor God.  Later in the new testament it does go into how the parents are responsible in raising their children to be able to honor them and other people.  If the parent's don't do their part, then it can make it harder to understand what it means to honor God and other authority figures.  However, your relationship with God is up to you.  It is your choice to honor your parents even when you don't feel like it.

    Honoring your parents leads to a happier and healthier family unit.  That means less stress.  Less stress typically means a healthier body and mind.  That means you are more likely to live longer, healthier, and productive life.  A healthy family is a unit like a small version of the church.  When life gets hard you have support.  You are not facing it alone.  Failure makes life unnecessarily harder.  You are more likely to make life decisions that will shorten your life span.  

    Another part of the promise is blessed to enjoy the land God has given.  He promised His people specific land.  Today, it is the land that is yours and the lifestyle that you live.  If you live a holy lifestyle, then it will be fruitful in different ways.  You get to enjoy life in a pure way that is healthier and more vibrant.  It could be the ability to travel, own a lot of land, or enjoy the environmental elements of the area you do live.

    This is a commandment and a promise because any boundary that God lays out for you is for your benefit.  If you honor your parents and your parents raise you in the teachings of God, then you are more likely to follow the boundaries that God laid out for you.  If you do not have that structure, then teach yourself how to follow God and love your parents in the way that honors God.  

    Only the stubborn refuse discipline and correction.  Those people set themselves up for their own fate.  Do not let that be you.  Seek wise counsel.  Find elders that you can respect to help you in your journey.  Lean into God if you don't feel safe with your family.  

    God knows that living in this world that things are not perfect.  Trust Him to protect you and do right by you even if your family does not.  As long as you try to honor Him and live a life that is respectful in a way that it shows Him you are trying to obey His commandment, then He will provide a way of protection, love, and structure for you.  He knows the heart that loves and tries to obey.  He will bless you if you decide to do your part even if your family never does try.  Remember your eternal family is in Heaven.  You may not have the loving or caring family now, but follow Jesus and you will.

Exodus 20:12, 23:26, Leviticus 19:3, Deuteronomy 5:16, Jeremiah 35:7-19, Matthew 15:4, 19:19, Mark 7:10, 10:19, Luke 18:20, & Ephesians 6:2

God's Promise: Fight for You

 

"The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still"  Exodus 14:14

    God promised his people he would fight for them.  He had just rescued them from decades of slavery and abuse.  The didn't know how to have true hope.  They did not understand freedom and the responsibility it held.  They knew what it was to be given the basics to survive and hardship.  

    They were not all together ready to handle the freedom that God had given them.  He was still holding their hand leading them to safety.  He understood that they needed a little more insurance and He gave it gladly.  He knew that they needed a little extra peace.  They got to see God fight the Egyptians on their behalf.  

    God showed them power that He had never revealed to any other group.  He had shown power in creation.  He shows power in nature or natural disasters.  He never did such a variety of different things.  He never did layer on top of layer of incredible and impossible things before or since.  He did it because it is what had to happen for everyone to trust and rely on Him.  We don't need that today because the world has His Word.  You trust it or you don't. The next time the world see a series of impossible events anywhere close to this will be when the world ends.

    When you are in spiritual warfare, been abused, coming off of addiction, or something else that has oppressed you a long time if not your entire life, you need a little more insurance.  You may not have grown up knowing you were loved.  If you allow God, then He will show you what love really is.  If you are insecure, then He will give you security.  If you need healing, then He will heal you.  

    God meets you where you are.  It is when you give Him everything that has been hurting you that you discover freedom.  You may not be ready for it right away.  You have a couple of options.  First, cling to the promises of God, lean into Him, and pray through it.  Or you could stumble around and get a little bruised up before you give it to God.  Either way, He is there.  He is fighting for you.  He will help you build your confidence to stand bold and fight for what is righteous and true.  You do not have to be afraid because God is victorious.

    Take responsibility for your role in some events in your life.  You are not perfect.  You never deserve to be abused, hurt, or have evil done to you.  However, you sin too.  Take responsibility for your personal sin and repent.  Pray that you can see how God is fighting for you.  He will open your eyes if you want to see to aspects.  You will never have the full scale of how much He does for you, but He will give you enough for you to know how loved you are by Him.  He will give your heart and mind peace.  Hold onto that truth while you let Him quiet your mind.

Exodus 14:14, Deuteronomy 1:30, 3:22, 20:4, Joshua 10:14, 23:3, 2 Chronicles 20:29-30, Nehemiah 4:20, & Isaiah 30:15, 31:4 

God's Promise: Abraham's Covenant

 

2"I will make you a great nation.  I will bless you and make your name great, and you will be a blessing.  3 I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you I will curse.  All people on earth will be blessed through you."

    Abraham had an open heart to God.  He listened and obeyed revealing His love and respect for God.  I don't know if that is why God chose Abraham to bless unlike anyone else on earth.  Maybe Abraham was created for this blessing, but even then it would not have happened if Abraham did not choose to listen and obey.  

    This promise is a blessing that carries on to every generation after Him.  God formed his nation through Abraham.  Abraham did become famous.  Here hundreds of years later you still know who Abraham is.  Abraham was a blessing unto other people.  He did many things for many people.  He avoided conflict that could negatively affect relationships.  If he could not avoid it, then he found the best solution.  

    Anyone who went against Abraham did not fare well.  Anyone who went against God nation was eventually destroyed.  Anyone who goes against God's people today will be dealt with by God.  You know it does not end well for them.  To live without Jesus is a cursed life.  It will not end well.

    You need to forgive those people now and try to introduce them to Jesus through your lifestyle.  This is how you can carry out the Abraham Covenant today in blessing other people.  Do good where you can do good.  Do not be a push over, but do not go out of your way to make life worse or harder for anyone.  Give what you have to give to those in need.  Trust God to take care of you like He did Abraham and watch the blessings happen.

    God set Abraham for his promise of blessings before Abraham even left his home country.  God knew He would be obedient.  Maybe Abraham needed to have hope before he left everything and everyone he knew other than his wife and nephew, Lot.  Either way God commanded and Abraham obeyed without hesitation.  God know you.  He knows the best way to communicate with you.  You only have to listen and obey like Abraham.  

    This promise that God made to Abraham covers progeny, prominence, and protection.  God never promised wealth, but Abraham got that too.  God only gave him one son, but through Isaac the nation of Israel came about over time.  It was through God's nation came Jesus.  It was Jesus that opened the door for salvation for every person of every nation.  The promised was one based on righteousness and faith not law.  You can see the significance of this promise made by God to one person that affects all people over time.  

Genesis 12:2-3, 17:6-8, 22:16-18, 26:3-4, 28:13-14, Acts 7:2, Romans 4:13, Galatians 3:8-29, & Ephesians 2:12