All The Promises!:
Sometimes, living life day by day as a Christian can be difficult. There is so much that crowds into our lives that tends to crowd out Christ. Work, school, family, finances…none of these are bad in and of themselves. Yet they can overwhelm us and cause us to be angry or depressed or frustrated or-well, you get the idea. Like we are not living a “victorious Christian life.”I have a mental image of an elderly, slightly overweight, grandmother-type person. She’s dressed in a woman’s dark suit, wearing her “going to church” hat with a ribbon and a spot of veil on it. She’s clutching her Bible in one handand kindly saying, “Just hold on to the promises of Jesus. Hold on to His promises throughout your life.”Now I have no idea whether this image came from TV or the movies or some Sunday School experience from my childhood. In fact, it could be a complete figment of my imagination. However, the phrase “hold on to the promises” is one that has rattled around in my head for years.One of the verses that means the most to me is John 16:33. It reads: "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." As a fairly typical male I really want three things--peace, honesty, and hope. This passage tells me that God cares enough about my peace of mind that he communicates to me. And, this passage gives me two promises. First, that there is a reality, that noteverything is going to go smoothly "in this world." Each of us encounters that promise daily. But with the second promise, God encourages me to take heart,to have hope, to know that He is greater than all things and that He has overcomethe world.When I’m having one of those days where life is difficult, when I’m having trouble,and I don’t feel very “victorious”, I stop and say, “Yes, Jesus promised me that thiswould happen.” And then I remember his other promise, “I have overcome the world.”
Paul Neighbors
|
