15 January
VICTORY THROUGH FAITH AND PERSEVERANCE (3)
“Just as rain and snow descend from the skies and don’t go back until they’ve watered the earth, doing their work of making things grow and blossom, producing seed for farmers and food for the hungry, so will the words that come out of my mouth not come back empty-handed. They’ll do the work I sent them to do, they’ll complete the assignment I gave them.”
(Isaiah 55:10-11, MSG)
“By an act of faith, Abraham said yes to God’s call to travel to an unknown place that would become his home. When he left he had no idea where he was going. By an act of faith he lived in the country promised him, lived as a stranger camping in tents. Isaac and Jacob did the same, living under the same promise. Abraham did it by keeping his eye on an unseen city with real, eternal foundations—the City designed and built by God.”
(Hebrews 11:8-10, MSG)
God called Abraham with a promise to give him a land flowing with milk and honey. Abraham’s descendants possessed the land eventually as God’s chosen people. Also, God’s promise that all peoples of the earth would be blessed through Abraham was fulfilled in the Messiah, our Saviour Jesus Christ, who came into the world as man, a descendant of Abraham, to save and reconcile all men to God. God did what He said He would do.
From birth to date, many of God’s promises to us have been fulfilled, while others are for the future. Many of the great promises take time. There were fourteen generations from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile in Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to Christ.
What is God’s promise to you that is yet unfulfilled? Don’t give up! Don’t be distracted! Don’t be discouraged! Most importantly, are you living here as if this is the only life you have? “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.” (1 Corinthians 15:19, KJV)
ACTION: “God has said it, it must stand, pass it on, it’s simply grand…”
PRAYER: Father God, I know that the testing of my faith produces perseverance. Please let perseverance finish its work in me, so that I may be mature and complete, not lacking anything (James 1:2-4). Amen.