“For no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ.” (2 Cor. 1:20 NIV)

Most Christians, sadly to say, don’t experience the kind of blessed life that God has provided for them in the Word of God because of, well, just plain ignorance of what God has provided for them!

Dried cheese and crackers!

They are like the guy who, many years ago, booked passage on an ocean liner to cross the Atlantic. He bought the ticket for passage but didn’t have enough money to buy food on the ship. So he took along a trunk full of dried cheese and crackers. Every day while all the other passengers ate sumptuous wonderful meals in the magnificent dining room, he stayed in his room and ate his dried cheese and crackers. It was agonizing for him to smell the wonderful food coming from the ship’s galley each day and to constantly hear the joyful laughter and happy conversations coming from the dining room of the other passengers eating roasts, hams, delicious cakes, pies and wonderful drinks, while at the same time he only ate the awful dried cheese and crackers! It was only on the last day of the long trip that he discovered that the price of the meals was actually included in the price of his ticket! He could have enjoyed all those wonderful meals and drinks if he had only known what was already paid for and available to him during that long, long trip across the Atlantic. Just like him, many Christians miss out on what they have in God’s promises which have already been totally paid for by Jesus! (“All God’s promises are yes, by Jesus”, 2 Cor. 1:20). They don’t read the Bible and are, therefore, unaware of the many thousands of promises God has provided for them in order to have a joyful, victorious, successful, and health-filled life on planet earth. Therefore, the “communication of their faith” never happens for them and is not “effectual” for them!

The apostle Paul said it this way

“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you.” (Ephesians 1:18 NIV)

I refuse to walk in ignorance! Once I discover a promise in God’s Word, I immediately “acknowledge” it as being for me. I thank God for giving it to me. I then speak it out loud and/or write it down. I receive it by faith and begin believing it and acting on it by faith. l mix my faith with God’s promise which makes it come alive and active for me! It then becomes “effectual” which makes me by its very definition, successful, productive, constructive, worthwhile, helpful, beneficial and useful. I love it! What a life to be had and enjoyed by any who do this!

“I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” (Heb. 13:5 KJV)

My early years were spent living with my stepfather and brother in Northern California. My brother David and I were pretty much used to the “bachelor life” and we could pretty much do whatever we wanted to do, because Daddy was very relaxed about rules.

Then, in the summer of 1960, at about age 13, I went to live with my mother and her new husband, in Rabbit Creek, Alaska.

They were not rich and lived in a log cabin along Rabbit Creek, where they got their water to drink and to bathe with.

There was no hot water, no indoor plumbing, and no bathroom! We had to use an outhouse that was up a long path behind the cabin.

It was severe culture shock for me and I did not react well to it! In fact, I had, what you might describe as “an attitude”.

That fall I started school. I didn’t like the long walks in the dark both ways to and from the school bus. I hated the 30-miles each way bus trips to and from school.

It was a long, cold, hard winter, and I complained a lot!

On the last day of school, I was excited that the long walks and commutes were finally over! The school bus dropped me off as usual and I headed home to the cabin.

Then I saw the note on the cabin door. It read! “Dear son, we have left for California . . .”

I couldn’t believe it!

They had left me! How could they have done that! I felt abandoned, rejected, and afraid!

What happened next, I will save for later.

In life we may sometimes suffer rejection in one way or another from people. But, the Bible has a huge promise from God that we can stand on with complete assurance. “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”

I feel greatly assured and comforted by this wonderful promise! And, so should you!

“For you were bought with a price.” (1 Cor.6:20 ESV)

I heard an old story, supposedly true, about a rich young man in a far eastern country who was making arrangements with a young maiden’s father to marry her. Marriages in that country were always arranged and based solely upon the prospective groom’s ability to pay the required dowry (the price for her). The dowry was usually paid with camels. An average maiden would usually be valued at one to two camels, an above average one would be two to three camels, and an exceptional one could be as much as four camels, tops! But, a four-camel maiden would have to be exceptionally beautiful and would have to possess many other valuable skills and attributes, to ever be worth that much.

The young man met with the father and said, “I offer you nine camels for your daughter!”

Nine camels! This amount was unheard of! No one had ever paid more than four camels for a bride before! And this man was offering to pay nine camels for his daughter!

The father immediately accepted the offer and was thrilled to receive such a high dowry amount for his daughter!

He then set out to publicly announce the upcoming marriage along with the amount that was paid. Nine camels!

The story soon spread far and wide.

People asked, “Who is this remarkable woman, who is worth so much? She must be exceptionally beautiful! She must be an extraordinary woman in every possible way, far above any other!”

Everything changed for the bride to be!

The father said, “I must have failed to notice how beautiful, wonderful, and valuable my daughter is. But not anymore! From now on, she will be treated as royalty in my home! She will sit at my right hand, the best place at my table! She will be served first. She will be given the best food. She will be clothed in the finest garments. All her needs and wishes will be taken care of by my servants.”

Everyone in her village began to treat her differently, too. When she would arrive, people would say, “Here comes the beautiful nine-camel woman!” And they would admire her! Instantly she became valuable!

The maiden was the same person as before, yet everything had changed for her! In an instant she became valuable. It was because of the price that was paid for her!

In the same way, you have been bought with a price! (1 Cor. 6:20). And that price is the most valuable payment that has ever been paid! You have been paid for “with the precious blood of Jesus Christ”! (1 Peter 1:19).

Therefore…

YOU are valuable because of the price that was paid!

“…Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things…” (Matt. 25:23 KJV)

Want to move ahead to a greater level in your life? Here is the answer, “be good and faithful” with what little you already have!

Think about the logic of this from a parent’s standpoint

If you have a child who does not take care of his room, would you put him in charge of taking care is your whole house? No, you would not!

In the same way, if you are the owner of a large corporation, would you promote someone into a higher position within your company if they were not first good and faithful at the lower position they already possess within your business? No, you would not!

And God is saying exactly the same thing in this promise about the “good and faithful” servant chosen for increase.

Here is how to take advantage of this powerful promise.

Be good and faithful with what you already have in your hands, at home, at work, at school, in your marriage, in your people relationships, (whatever!); and then you will be increased to a higher level in it!

“Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” (2 Cor. 9:7-8 NIV)

Susan and I love to give and have done so from the first day of our marriage. We saw in this promise Biblical principles to help us understand and receive blessings from putting God first in our financial matters.

I’m happy to report that God has always blessed us dramatically according to this promise in His Word!

What this promise says and what it has taught us about giving

• “God loves a cheerful giver.” We saw early on from this promise that God loves those who give cheerfully, and we wanted to do and be what He clearly said he “loved”!

• “Give what you have decided in your heart to give.” We always made sure we gave to things we truly believed in and cared about; something we could support wholeheartedly without reservation. We made sure that what we were giving to was producing good results and good fruit.

• “Not reluctantly.” We fully trusted in the Biblical principle of tithing and understood from God’s Word that the first part of our income (10%) belonged to God and not to us. Therefore, we never considered it to be our money but always considered it to be His money. Therefore, as soon as our paycheck arrived, we happily wrote our tithe check first, to put His money to work for Him.

• “And God is able to bless you abundantly.” And we believed the promise in Malachi 3 that He would bless us for being faithful in this respect. We were convinced that God was able to bless us abundantly, we expected Him to, and He always has! Above and beyond, in fact!

• “In all things at all times, having all that you need.” We believed God would always meet every need (Phil. 4:19), and it has always been so!

• “You will abound in every good work.” We expected God to give us good work to do, to provide employment, and that He would bless us and prosper us in whatever we put our hands to. That, too, has consistently been the case!

According to Malachi 3:10, God says to test Him on this promise: “Test Me now in this,” says the LORD of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.”

And we HAVE tested Him by our consistent giving throughout the years, and He has always kept his promise! We are blessed!

“Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 1:6 NIV)

One of the most famous speeches ever delivered was given by Sir Winston Churchill at a university commencement.

He walked up to the lectern, removed his ever-present cigar from his mouth, and said the following words:

“Never give up! Never give up! Never give up!”

He then, put his cigar back into his mouth, and sat down.

Even though his speech consisted of only three words, “Never give up” repeated three times, it had enormous impact on listeners because it addressed the number one reason for most human failure, they don’t continue, they give up, they quit.

God NEVER gives up on you!

This promise, Phil. 1:6, states that we can be “confident that God will continue to do what He has begun in you until the day of Jesus Christ!

That is a wonderful promise!

Someone said it this way, “Please be patient, God isn’t finished with me yet!” And He isn’t, He will never give up on you!

“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” (Matt. 10:29-31 NIV)

One day while listening to the news on the radio, the announcer suddenly gasped, and then there was complete silence.

I wondered what had happened to him and turned up the radio and listened carefully.

Soon, he came back on and apologized for the sudden dead air space. Then he explained what had happened.

He said, “Where I am sitting here in the news room, I face a large plate glass window looking outside the building. As I was reading the news just now, a sparrow suddenly hit the window and fell to the ground. When that happened, I remembered that it says somewhere in the Bible that God sees when a sparrow falls. What startled me, wasn’t the sparrow hitting the window, but it was the thought that I was sitting so close to where God was looking!”

The announcer obviously didn’t understand the simple truth of the verse, which is that God sees a sparrow fall because He sees everything all the time.

Points to ponder

This section of scripture, which mentions the sparrow falling, has several good points to ponder. Here is the passage again, with my comments in parenthesis added.

“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? (Sparrows are cheap) Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. (God takes care of cheap sparrows and notices when every single one of them falls). And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered (God is so aware of every tiny detail about you that He even knows the number of the hairs on your head). So don’t be afraid; (therefore, you don’t have to ever fear, because God is constantly aware of everything about you, and is aware of your needs) you are worth more than many sparrows (exactly what it says!).

No need to worry!

So, the promise here is that there is no need for you to ever be afraid, because God sees you all the time, cares for you, knows what you need, and will take care of you, because you are very valuable to Him!

“For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. (Heb. 4:2 KJV)

This promise is talking about two groups (types) of people hearing the same Word of God that was preached to both of them. One group heard it and profited from it and one group heard it and did not profit from it!

Many Christians “don’t quite” believe the Word of God, and so they get no profit from it! It doesn’t work for them!

Oh, they say they believe. But, when push comes to shove, and the chips are down, so to speak, they don’t actually do. And, the proof is in the results. To follow them around and watch them, and to listen to their “talk” (what rolls out of their mouths), you would never think they were Christians. Out of their mouths come worry-words and doubt-words. And this makes the Word of God not work for them!

Why is this so?

The Bible puts it this way, “the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.”

The promises of God are all faith activated!

The Word of God only works for those who mix faith with it! That explains why some Christians benefit from the promises of God while others do not!

This is a huge problem in the church!

Christians who should be walking and living victoriously by faith, and enjoying the “fruit” of God’s thousands of promises, which cover every conceivable need, act and behave like unbelievers.

Here is another example

God promises in James 1:5 that you can ask God for wisdom and He will generously supply it. But, you read a little further in the same passage and you will find this qualifier (James 1:6-8 KJV) “But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let that man not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.”

A double minded man! Unstable in all his ways! That is the problem!

Here’s what to do!

Decide today to trust the Word of God completely, no matter how things may look! If the Word of God promises it, that must settle it for you! Mix your faith with His Word and it will work for you every time!

“Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?” (Matt.6:31 ESV)

When I was a young child, we lived a half mile from the Van Duzen River in Northern California. One winter it rained so much that the river suddenly overflowed its banks and grew to an astounding five miles wide!

It happened very fast and we were caught totally by surprise!

We were in our home having dinner, not expecting any problem, when suddenly water started coming into the house from under the doors.

We didn’t have time to save anything from our house or farm!

When Daddy saw the water coming into the house he jumped up from his chair and grabbed my brother David and me and rushed us out the front door. Our car was already not drivable so we waded quickly through the fast-rising water towards the nearest hill, and then we climbed upward to safety.

From our vantage point on the hill we looked down to see our home, livestock, and everything we owned, quickly disappearing under water!

Even though it was obvious that we had just lost everything, Daddy told us repeatedly not to be afraid. He said it would be okay because he would be taking care of us. While assuring us with his gentle words, he held our small hands tightly in his strong ones. And we felt safe!

And Daddy kept his promise!

He was able to take care of us because he had plenty of money in the bank as well as good flood insurance! We in fact didn’t go without a thing! We went to the store and bought clothes and we stayed in a nice hotel until Daddy could make more permanent arrangements.

In the same way, God has our needs completely covered!

No matter what should suddenly happen to us, or how bad something may look, we never have to “be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?” He has it all covered!