Taking hold of God’s promises
THIS MOTHER’S Day, we celebrate the blessing of motherhood. It can often come with much trial and hardship, but we must be determined to take hold of God’s promises for our children and our families, and to live in that reality.
What promise has God made to you? Some of His promises belong to every born-again believer. Jesus was crucified so that the doorway to these promises would be open to us, and His Word says: “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ. And so through him the ‘Amen’ is spoken by us to the glory of God.” 2 Corinthians 1:20 NIV. God wants us to walk in the blessing of His promises, and the Scriptures show us how to do just that. In the days of Isaac, it states, “A severe famine now struck the land …” (Genesis 26:1). It is hard for most of us to imagine going through a famine in the land as they had in those days. There was no global food supply network to back up the loss of local provisions. Isaac would not have been able to grow or even buy food to feed his family. This would inevitably cause death from malnutrition and starvation, and there was nothing anyone could do but hope to survive until the famine ended and the rains came. So it was usually migrate or die.
In many ways, we, too, are experiencing different types of lack in our own land. Logic tells us to go where there is employment, water and food. For them, that was Egypt, the great metropolitan city of the time, because, if food were anywhere, it would be there. Isaac was in the middle of this trip, but, on his way, he stopped in a place called Gerar and this is where God met him … . “The Lord appeared to Isaac and said, ‘Do not go down to Egypt, but do as I tell you. 3 Live here as a foreigner in this land, and I will be with you and bless you’.” Genesis 26:2-3 NLT.
Above his natural thoughts and the circumstances that confronted him, Isaac chose to trust God’s instructions. In the same way, if we’re going to reclaim the promises of God in our own lives, we have to trust what God says. We cannot afford to be ‘Christian Atheists’ who are in church as believers in name only without any corresponding trust in God’s Word to us. We must trust what God says to us in our spirit and trust what He has said through received and tested prophetic words from others.
This trust is manifested through our actions. Isaac trusted God and this was evidenced by his next move – he settled in Gerar and planted crops. There is a great blessing in obedience, and the Word tells us, “If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the best of the land … .” Isaiah 1:19 AMP.
Many times, as God’s people, we disobey what He tells us and then wonder why we find ourselves in all kinds of problems and troubles. If we want to be blessed and claim God’s promises, we need to walk in obedience.
Finally, we must be aware that, though the enemy cannot take away what God has blessed us with, he can and does create situations for us to curse ourselves. Anytime we are moving in the way that God wants, we are going to receive opposition. Despite this, know for certain that God keeps His Word. Trust Him, walk in obedience and take hold of your promise.