God Wants to Be Believed

January 17th, 2024

SCRIPTURE: “For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. 17 Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, 18 that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. 19 This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, 20 where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” Hebrews 6:16-20

The Bible reveals to us that from the very beginning the two things that are the expectations of God throughout every generation is that man believes and obey what He says. His commands, instructions, testimonies, precepts, and from our text of devotion, His promises to us. We hang our faith on the faithfulness of God to His promises. In his book entitled, “All the Promises of God in the Bible”, Herbert Lockyer says there are 7487 promises by God given to man. They are either absolute (HE WILL DO) or they are conditional (IF WE DO) and all of them are backed by the integrity of His unchanging character. It is impossible for God to lie.

We live a life between what God says and what God has done. Though God calls us to have
faith in what He says, He also knows that faith must see Him do what He says He will do. So that our faith will result in an obedience because our God always backs up His Word with faithfulness that never fails. He wants us to know Him not only personally, but He wants us to understand His ways of growing us so that we will live with a confident faith regularly and not doubt Him. Our example of Abraham reveals what is true about all of us, that is, none of us begins with a matured faith. God grows our faith as He leads us in life through many trials that most of the time requires that we trust Him enough to obey Him. It is in these trials that require waiting that God’s promises are critical to our lives of faith. They give us direction as we wait. They enable us to overcome our doubts. They encourage us when discouragement may make us want to quit. They keep us when we drift and bring us back when we fail or falter in our waiting or in our disobedience.

Because God sees and knows all things from the beginning to the end and everything in
between, we must trust Him not only for our short-term waiting, and obedience matters, but for matters that are long term, even into eternity. Because God’s Word of Promises are not threatened by time, they give and sustain us in our hope. Hope that is sustained by our God who does not lie, nor changes in nature or purpose, enables us to live with an expectation beyond ourselves and an anticipation of the fulfillment of God’s Words to us. It is the hope that anchors our souls permanently to our Lord Jesus Christ forever.

Prayer: Father in heaven, how I can ever justify not believing everything you have given unto us to know and believe. Have I not known and have I not seen over the years as your child that You are faithful to keep me according to the promises You have made? In Jesus Name we thank You. Amen.
By Pastor Wayne Cockrell