God's Promise: Find Rest

 "Jesus said, Come to me all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you.  Let me teach you, because I am bumble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light." NLT

Matthew 11:28-30

    This promise is a promise of communication and God being the problem solver.  Go to God in prayer about every aspect of your life and trust Him to take care of it.  You can live life doing good and watch as He does all the big impossible things.  You can't do things as good as Him, so relax and let Him do His thing.  It takes a lot of stress out of your life and brings joy to watch Him work in your life.

    This promise is an invitation to have a real relationship with God.  Nothing is too heavy for Him.  There is no aspect about yourself that will scare Him away.  He loves you and wants the best for you, but you do have to admit that sin is sin.  You do have to repent and start walking with Jesus to have a real relationship.  He will heal what the world has broken and what sin has corrupted.

    The yoke is burdens, heaviness, and hardship in life.  It can be oppression, dealing with hard hearts, selfishness, trials, tribulations, or hurdles in life.  When you feel like you are buckling under the pressure of life, go to God.  Give Him everything you know you are carrying and pray that what is hidden is revealed.  He will take it gladly so you can keep going and doing good in the world.  

    This is a gentle love promise because He wants you to be able to keep going and facing life with Him.  He give you the Holy Spirit to direct you and lead you through the hard parts in life.  Don't give up on yourself and God.  Give up on what is holding you back.  Jesus is the way to living a triumphant life.  He is the source of energy to keep you going without growing faint.  He is your role model that was an open book to show you how to obey God and be strong.  Follow His steps into eternity of peace, harmony, and burden free.

Jeremiah 6:16, Zechariah 9:9, Matthew 11:28-30, John 13:15, Philippians 2:5-7, 1 Peter 2:21, & 1 John 2:6, 5:3

God's Promise: Tithing

 

"Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it." NIV 

"Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my temple.  If you do, says the Lord of Heaven's Armies, I will open the windows of heaven for you.  I will pour out a blessing so great you won't have enough room to take it in!  Try it!  Put me to the test!" NLT

"Bring the full 10th into the storehouse so that there may be food in my house.  Test me in this way, says the Lord of Armies. See if I will not open the floodgates of heaven and pour out a blessing for you without measure."  CSB

Malachi 3:10

    This promise is reward for being obedient.  Tithing is hard for some people.  God wants you to be able to give everything you have back to Him in your heart, but He provides generously because He knows what you need and want to bless you.  All He ask is that you give 10 percent of what you have.  If you do, then the church would never need to ask for money, service, food, or anything else.  It is the responsibility of the entire church, not a select few.

    You are never to test God, but here God gives you permission to test what He can do.  He knows that security is hard to let go of.  Many people find security in money.  If you are willing to give a portion of what you make willingly, then He will bless you in ways you can't imagine.  You test God by doing it and waiting to see what He does.

    The promise of tithing is a command and promise.  The purpose is to act on faith.  This is how you start working out your faith and making it stronger.  It also helps the church: building, pastors, missionaries, people in need, and more.  You being faithful helps you, but also serves your community.  

    You being faithful and giving even when there is no guarantee that the people you give to will be honest, is rewarded with blessings.  You are called to give no matter what other people do.  God will deal with them.  Jesus had Judas in charge of their money.  You can see what happened to him for his evil heart.  You have to face God one day.  Isn't it better to do so with a clear conscience rather than trying to explain what He already knows?  

    Whenever you choose to trust God there are only benefits. He will provide for your needs, but He will also bless you beyond your imagination.  You are blessed with good character, wisdom, understanding, love, discernment, financially, health, youthfulness, and more.  You can be blessed financially without ever being rich.  You can see God provide the exact amount of money you need to get you through.  That is a blessing that removed stress and enables you to relax for a minute.  Do not overlook the blessings God provides.  Give Him praise and worship for all the blessings He has given.

Genesis 7:11, 2 kings 7:2, 1 Chronicles 26:20, 2 Chronicles 31:10-11, Nehemiah 10:38, 13:12, Proverbs 3:9, & Malachi 3:10

God's Promise: Hope

 

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (NIV)

"For I know the plans I have for you , Says the Lord;  They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope." (NLT)

Jeremiah 29:11

    The promise of hope and future are not a promise of an easy life.  You have to face consequences for the decisions you make in life.  This promise was that God was going to allow His people to face the consequences for 70 years in excile, but He would not forget about them. When the time was up, He would return them to the promised land.  The promise went a lot further than that though.  This promise was that God would send Jesus to be the eternal hope for every generation and all people.  God's character revealed here is his unchanging nature, sovereignty, compassion, and love.

    This hope is reassurance that things will not always be status quo or bad.  You will have good in life and perfection in eternal life if you choose to walk your life in faith with Jesus.  God's punishment is for direction and clarification when you go off path.  It is an act of love, not hate or display of power.  It is for your good.  It always benefits you in the long run.  

    While you wait on your promised land, do not sit around and literally wait.  Go out and live your life.  It is a gift, but live it righteously.  Walk with Jesus and tell the world about the most important relationship you have without shame.  Live life like you are already in the promised land because you have confidence that God will keep his word and provide it for you.  It will make the bad days a little more bearable.  

    Following Jesus is not always easy.  Having your eyes opened to the truth adds layers to your life, but it can be hard when not everyone see what God is offering like you do.  Being a Christians will not get you out of financial dept.  It frees you from the dept of sin, but you still live in this world and have to deal with the choices you make.  Following Jesus does not always heal you physically on Earth, but it will in Heaven.  

    Embrace where you are at and look for ways that God can use it now.  Life is hard, but it is also beautiful.  Don't focus on the hard, focus on all the things God is doing in your life and the direction He is leading.  Trust that Jesus will restore you when the time is right.  His plan it to bring you peace, not evil, but sometimes you have to go through some stuff to get there. When it is hard hold onto your hope for the future.  Hold onto that hope and allow the Holy Spirit fill you with joy and peace of your salvation.

Isaiah 40:31, Jeremiah 29:10-14, Romans 15:13, Hebrews 6:9

God's Promise: Holy Spirit

 

"The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners." Isaiah 61:1 NIV

    The Promise of the Holy Spirit is a promise to have an eternal connection with God.  The Holy Spirit is not only a gift, but an anointing to go out and tell the world the gift that God has given you.  The gift of salvation is called the "Good News".  No matter what God's path is for you, it always is leading you to share the "Good News" and headed toward eternity with Him.  All you have to do is accept His gift and allow the Holy Spirit to live in you.  The Holy Spirit is your seal of salvation that can never be removed.

    In Isaiah 61:1 the Greek references healing the blind.  It is talking about the spiritually blind.  In English we reference it as the Holy Spirit providing comfort when your heart is broken, release from bondage or being captive to sin, and being a freed prisoner.  It was talking about God's people being captivity.  It would not last forever, but it is also talking to you today.  Whatever sin has put you in bondage, you can get free.  You do not have to live your life pushing God away.  You can have eternity in His presence.  You can be close to Him now and for eternity.

    The Holy Spirit anoints you when He moves in and joins your soul.  He is healing your from the inside while you work in actions.  This is His anointing placed upon your life.  God help the people you can help.  Work to be kind and tell people the truth in love instead of being nice.  Do things to make people's lives better, but not so you will benefit.  Do it out of love that the Holy Spirit pours into you, so you can pour it out onto other people to ease their pain or bring them comfort.  

    Live out your freedom showing people how to become free.  Show people how to break their bondage.  Show them how to have joy in their lives.  Be a person that helps people find healing instead of causing more wounds and scars.  The truth can hurt when you first receive it, but if you accept it, then it brings healing and can even remove scars.  It just has to clean out what is causing the infection that is slowly killing you first.  

    The Holy Spirit will give you comfort, so you can comfort.  He will give you rest, so you can show others how to rest.  He will give you wisdom and understanding to handle situations.  Allow Him to counsel you so you can counsel other people.  He will give you the strength to follow through on your calling.  He will give you the knowledge you need to combat fear.  Trust God and the Holy Spirit will lead you to victory.  

Psalm 45:7, 147:3, Isaiah 11:2, 42:7, 57:15, 61:1, Jeremiah 34:8,  Luke 4:18, & John 1:32, 3:34

God's Promise: Freedom

 

"this is the kind of fasting I want: Free those who are wrongly imprisoned; lighten the burden of those who work for you.  Let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people."  Isaiah 58:6

    This is a promise of freedom, but it is conditional.  It requires faith, prayer, and fasting.  God provided the ritual of denying yourself to focus on prayer so that people could pursue Him in times of need, difficulty, or growth.  It was never meant to become a ritual to show how good you are as a "Christian".  

    The point of fasting is to get closer to God, but it also comes with many different types of perks.  The problem is that some people remove God from the process in hopes to just have the perks.  You focus on your relationship with God and who you are with Him.  Your prayers will be answered, but there are other benefits too.  You may look younger, become healthier, get more energy, and find wisdom that leads to freedom.

    The promise is conditional because you have to do your part to discover the freedom that comes with salvation.  As your eyes open to the truth you have to make changes in your life to maintain your freedom.  It does not mean you will be free from every type of oppression or discomfort.  It is a spiritual and sometimes healing kind of freedom.  It is freedom from the constraints of the world that say you have to be a certain way or live a certain way to be worthy, happy, or a person that matters.  

    Fasting looses the hold that evil has in your life.  It leads to a closer relationship with God.  You become more self-disciplined, so you are able to focus on your relationship with God as a decision.  It leads to patience and enables you to endure in life because you know what you have no one can take from you.  It build stronger character because you discover the value of it. The burdens of wickedness are removed as you desire to live your life with God.  Once you obtain this freedom, then you should want to help other people discover it.

    The promise of freedom comes with a command and laying out His expectations, so that when you worship Him you discover freedom.  Freedom always cost something.  Jesus paid that cost, so you can be a Christian and inherit a level of freedom.  The freedom become powerful when you learn to fast, pray, and dig into His Word.  The freedom helps you uphold justice, remove burdens yourself enabling you to identify them, and withstand being broken by oppression.  God's light lives in His people, so you can find the way through, find healing, and protect righteousness.  Freedom exist in faith.

Nehemiah 5:10-12, Isaiah 58:5-8, Jeremiah 22:3, 34:9, Micah 6:8, Zechariah 7:9-10, Luke 4:18, James 2:15-16, & 1 John 3:17-18

God's Promise: Compassion

 

"10 The mountains may shift, and the hills may be shaken, but my faithful love won’t shift from you, and my covenant of peace won’t be shaken, says the Lord, the one who pities you.  11 Suffering one, storm-tossed, uncomforted, look, I am setting your gemstones in silvery metal and your foundations with sapphires.  12 I will make your towers of rubies, and your gates of beryl, and all your walls of precious jewels.  13 All your children will be disciples of the Lord—I will make peace abound for your children.  14 You will be firmly founded in righteousness.  You will stay far from oppression because you won’t fear, far from terror because it won’t come near you.  15 If anyone attacks you, it’s none of my doing.  Whoever attacks you will fall because of you.  16 Look, I myself created the metalworker who blows the fire of coal and who produces a tool for his work.  And I myself created the looter to destroy.  17 No weapon fashioned against you will succeed, and you may condemn every tongue that disputes with you.  This is the heritage of the Lord’s servants, whose righteousness comes from me, says the Lord."  Isaiah 54:10-17 CEB

    This is a promise of compassion.  If you are a child of God it doesn't matter what happens.  God's love for you covers you in compassion.  His compassion gives you all the treasure you need.  It covers you in righteousness.  God's love is faithful.  It never stops.  It never holds back.  It will never break, so you know that His compassion is steadfast too.

    God is the foundation for your soul's peace.  He is the foundation of your life to have purpose and to be able to live in the kind of love you need.  This foundation gives you the ability to live wisely.  When you live in God's wisdom you are able to hold onto peace.  The ability to not live in terror is an example of God's compassion.  Him fighting for you is compassion.  

    God making you an eternal home with Him is compassion.  It is compassionate to allow eternity of peace instead of torment, but this compassion is circumstantial.  You have to believe, live in faith, and follow Jesus to have this compassion.  To reject the truth means that you choose eternity separated from God in an eternity of destruction and fire.  You have free will, but if you choose to follow worldly desires over God, then that passion will lead you to an eternity in the pit of fire.  That may not feel like compassion, but it is for those who sacrifice everything to follow Jesus.  It allows them to have eternity of peace, victory, and vindication.   

    The promise of compassion is a promise to comfort, restore, and protect His people.  It is extended to every living person, but it is your choice if you receive it or not.  It is a promise of unfailing love.  God's compassion is kindness. that will not depart you.  It is His mercy displayed every day.  He is your strength to face each day with confidence and self-control. 

    This is a promise that one day you will no longer face oppression, fear, conflict, or terror.  You will no longer have to accept horrible things as a part of life and everything you did experience will disappear.  God's compassion comfort will make it as if it never happened.  It will be an eternity of beauty, peace, and a close relationship with God.  He will destroy all that caused havoc in the world.  It will happen.  

1 Chronicles 29:2, Psalm 46:2, 89:33-34, Isaiah 45:24-25, 51:6, 54:10-17, Matthew 5:18, John 6:45, & Revelations 21:18

God's Promise: I am with You

 

"When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze." NIV

"When you go through deep waters, I will be with you.  When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown.  When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you." NLT

Isaiah 43:2

    This promise that God will be with you is powerful.  He knows that living in the fallen world and following Jesus will be hard.  He understands that choosing to follow Jesus brings oppression and hardship into your life.  God promises that trials and tribulations will come upon His people, but He is in the worst of it with you.  He will not leave you to face this world alone.

    God does not give you the extra burden, but He doesn't take it away immediately either.  He allows it for your own good.  God knows all things including how you will react, but you don't know how you will react until you are under pressure.  He allows it so you will learn more about yourself and how He is there in it with you.

    Water is hard to move through, especially if you are going against the current.  Your muscles can get tired easily.  Satan and his world is the current you are moving against.  God knows you can't do it on your own, so He is promising to swim in stride with you.  He is there to help you when you can't go any further.  He will not let you drown.  Water is nice, but it can also be dangerous.  That is life.  It is full of beauty, joy, and excitement, but it is also dangerous.  

    The fires of oppression is accurate.  Oppression is intense.  It is pressure that you may not be able to identify.  It adds heat that makes you uncomfortable.  This is where God is working.  You may feel the heat.  You may be getting burned a little, but the flames are not touching you.  He will not allow Satan's fire to consume His people.  He is standing between you and the worst of it.  Satan brings the chaos and God brings the calm.  Satan brings duress and God brings comfort.

    This promise should give you comfort because you know you are not facing life's most difficult parts alone.  You can embrace the protection that you are getting with gratitude to help you endure the parts that you are dealing with.  You can lean into God to make this season easier.  It is only a season.  It will not last forever.  The bad seasons may come more often than you like, but realize that God is preparing you for something bigger than yourself. 

    This is a promise made in love.  Allow that love to fill you and heal all the broken places, so that it can make you strong.  God told you to be strong and courageous, but you will never be able to do that if you don't accept His love and the healing that it brings.  You have to believe that He will be there when He says He will be.  You have to believe the promise Jesus and follow him no matter where it may lead.  You have to believe that your soul is protected even if the journey is hard.

Deuteronomy 31:6-8, Psalm 66:12, 91:3, Isaiah 43:2, & Daniel 2:25-27