Promises Pt. 2

Scripture: Psalm 37:23-24 (NLT)  23 The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives. 24 Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand.

Thoughts: A friend of mine recently quoted the late philosophy professor and pastor, Dallas Willard, as saying something like: “I know what God’s address is: it’s at the end of your rope!” When we get to the end of our rope, and we’ve tried all of our ideas and exhausted our efforts, there God is…and actually, God was there all along willing to hold us by the hand and sustain us by holding us in His hand – if we’re willing to be held and led by Him.

This is related to the Promises idea from yesterday. We’re going along living our lives on our own power, sometimes sliding downward in failure...when all along God in the Scripture has given us promises that the Spirit of God might remind us, “Hey! This one is for YOU right now!”

So if you’re struggling with something in your life as you seek to live a life of holiness of heart and life, perhaps Psalm 37:23-24 could be used of God to give you peace and strength: The Lord holds you by the hand!

Action: Take a piece of string or rope or long piece of tape, hold it by one hand outstretched so it dangles to the floor. Run one of your other fingers down it, reminding yourself of how in that area of life you’re trying to hold on but are slipping down sometimes. Picture yourself getting to the end of that rope / string / tape, about to fall to the floor, and there is God’s hand. Right there at the end.

Prayer: “Lord, help me to believe you are there at the end of my rope. You can catch me, hold me, rescue me, and take me by the hand and guide me. I believe. I will trust you.”

Power in the Promises

SCRIPTURE: 2 Peter 1:4-5 says:  And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.  In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises.

THOUGHTS: In our sermon series this Spring we're looking at the ways in which the Bible shows us how to overcome sin in our lives so that we can live lives of what the early Methodists called "holiness of heart and life." In this Scripture passage, Peter indicates that one of the ways we can overcome the sin he calls "the world's corruption caused by human desires," is to "make every effort to respond to God's promises." How do we do that?

Well, where do we find the most complete list of promises God has given humanity through the ages? In the Bible. How can we find out what those promises are? Look in the Bible for them! I heard a seasoned leader in the Nazarene denomination say years ago that when he hit a really difficult season in life, he'd start searching the Bible carefully with the prayer, "Lord -- show me a promise for my life right now..." I like that. It's intentional. It's faith-full.

ACTION: Make sure you have a daily routine of reading at least a small portion of the Bible, and you'll often come across promises God wants you to see and believe in and trust in for your life. But you can also take a sizable portion like a couple of chapters or a small book in the Bible like 2 Peter, and read it now with that prayer:

PRAYER: "Lord -- show me a promise for my life right now..."

A Sin-free life?

SCRIPTURE: 1 John 3:6 Anyone who continues to live in him, [Jesus], will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand who he is.

THOUGHTS: We all know we've done things that were wrong, bad, evil, sinful, etc. And we all know we've NOT done things we should have done. The Bible of both the Jews and the Christians calls this "sin," and there were several different ancient Hebrew and Greek words that described it.

We all know we can and do sin: the question is, can we NOT sin?

Anyone who talks about an afterlife talks about it as a perfect, loving, joyful, peaceful place...but that means it has no sin, right? So we intuitively think it must be POSSIBLE, somehow...

In this series of weekly Sunday sermon messages, we're looking at the possibility of living -- right now -- the way of life that Jesus taught and lived out in front of people: a way of 'holiness of heart and life.' Our goal in this series is to experience both the forgiveness from the PENALTY of sin thanks to Jesus' death and resurrection that pays the penalty, AND freedom from the POWER of sin, which Jesus' resurrection also gives us and empowers us to overcome by His grace and the help of the Holy Spirit.

ACTION: Right this minute, close your eyes and visualize the exact place you are in now, recreating it all in your mind -- and then imagine that place as being absolutely sin-free. If you're sitting at your kitchen table, or driving down the road listening to this, imagine right now -- no angry actions, no words of despair or pain, sinless. THAT is what we're trying to live in NOW, and not just wait until we're dead.

PRAYER: "Our Father in Heaven, help me to live into this sin-free vision today as well as I can by the grace and power of Jesus!"