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“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Matthew 6:33

As Christians this is a command for us, to seek first the kingdom of God. But it’s a command with a promise attached to it. But what does that even mean to seek first His kingdome? It means that all we do, our jobs, our decisions, our day to day life come back to seeking God’s will and His purpose for our lives. It means consulting with Him on the big decisions of life but also it means consulting with Him on the little decisions of life. It means spending time with Him and asking Him to direct our path. And it means trying to live our life in a way that will bring glory and honor to Him. That’s what seeking after His righteousness means. Are we living in a way that is seeking His righteousness? 

Everyone may have a different response to what it would look like for them to seek His righteousness. Everyone would have a different struggle. But, for me to first answer that question, I have to check my attitude and my every day life. What I struggle with most is a negative spirit seeping into my thought processes. Oh my mind can go off on a rail so quick with negative thoughts if I am not careful. And before I know it, I may as well be sitting in a corner whining because I am thinking no one likes me or wants to be around me. I have to fight those negative thoughts. I have to remind myself I am a daughter of the King and there is no room for those negative thoughts. Because the truth is, when I get myself in a pattern of negative thinking, who would blame people for not wanting to be around me? Many times we are our own worst enemy in this department. Negative thoughts breed a negative attitude. Who wants to be around someone with a whiny negative spirit all the time? 

The next thing in my attitude I have to check is my worry. And that is addressed in the previous verses from this one. In this passage Jesus was teaching the disciples about not being anxious for their food and clothing. God does not want us to worry about the things in our day to day life. What God wants us to be concerned with is His seeking His will for our lives and His righteousness, right thinking and living. Jesus points out that God clothes the flowers with His splendor and glory and He feeds the animals, but we are of much more value to God than they are. If we are seeking Him, seeking His direction and His will for our lives, the everyday what we will eat, drink and be clothed with will fall into place. 

Please understand this promise is not for us to never have another worry or care in life. We will, but when we are seeking Him, we know where to go with those worries and cares. We know to bring them to Jesus. And we know to lay them at His feet and let Him work those things out. I wish I could tell you I never let the worry or the negative seep in, I do. But when I am in a right frame of mind and I am seeking Him, I know where to check those thoughts. And I know how to bring them back to Him to seek His righteousness. 

The bottom line is, we have the promise from God that when we are seeking Him, His will and His purpose for our lives, that the day to day things of life will fall into place. When we are in God’s will, there will be provision for our needs. We may not have the latest sports car or the designer fashions or the fanciest house but somehow our day to day provisions will be met. I’ve seen it, I’ve lived it. In our family we have had times when we were doing well in life, by some standards, and we have had time when I prayed over what the grocery bill would be when I was about to walk into the grocery store. Or prayed for the Lord to stretch that tank of gas until payday. And somehow God always came through and our needs were met. Oh Lord Jesus, please help me to remember to always seek your kingdom and let you worry about my needs! 

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” James 1:2-5

This is one of those passages that I have had to learn to love. I have shared with you before that I didn’t understand it for a long time. How were you supposed to count joy trials that come your way? And well, truthfully I didn’t like it either. But experience, and I hate to admit it, age have made me learn what this really means. We have a few things to unpack from this passage. 

The first reason to count our trials as joy is that it will give us an opportunity for God to build our faith. And as our faith builds in one trial, it is there for us in the next one that comes along. When God has carried you through something, anything, it is easier to see that He will carry you through the next thing that comes your way. You see, it’s like this, trials that come our way can either make us bitter or they can make us better. It’s really your choice. Oh, wouldn’t we all love a life that trials never came our way? Of course we would. But that’s not how life works. There will be things. There will always be illnesses, there will be relational issues, there will be financial strains, there will always be death. Any of those and more can be considered our various trials. The joy doesn’t come from the trial itself. The joy comes from knowing that He is there for us to carry us through the trial. Knowing that we have a loving God who will wrap His arms around us and carry us through it, well that produces our faith, and it grows stronger. And when the next trial comes we will know that He is with us again. And we feel a little stronger to face it. 

Then the second reason to count our trials as joy is the promise of His wisdom. In some trials that come our way all we can do is let God carry us through them. But some require decisions to be made. When that is the case, we must ask God for the wisdom and He promises to give it. In fact these verses say He will give it to us generously and “without reproach”! God wants to guide us through this life. He wants us to ask Him and He will show us our next steps. Sometimes, actually most of the time, it is step by step. We don’t usually get to look at the big picture of where we are going in those times. But when we get to the other side and we look back we can usually see that when we asked Him for the wisdom that He gave it to us generously. When we cling to Him and ask Him to show us the way, He will do it. It’s a promise. Our job is to ask! 

Why is it, that we will look for a self help book instead of asking God so many times when we have a problem in front of us? I have been guilty of it. When, if we have God’s word in front of us, we have what we need to get through life. Now don’t take that the wrong way, Because I love books and I love to read a book about how someone learned to navigate a problem or issue they had and see if I can glean something to help me navigate. But something I always want to do is to make sure that any book I am reading about navigating life, points me back to scripture. I do believe we have a lot to learn from each other. But the true wisdom will only come from God, who will give us generously if we are asking. You can read the books for knowledge, but go to God to get the wisdom on how to use the knowledge you gain from reading the books. Let’s be sure to put them in proper perspective. 

“Someone once said that knowledge is the ability to take things apart, but wisdom is the ability to put things together.” 

I like that quote because what it brought to my mind is I can read all the self-help books I want to and I will gain some knowledge, but in the end when I am facing things that have broken my heart, it’s going to take God’s wisdom to show me the way and His gentle hands to put my heart back together. 

“And they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31

This is one of my all time favorite scriptures. I know it is a favorite among many. It is quoted, it is painted on plaques, it is worn on t shirts, but it’s really not just a cookie cutter scripture. It is much deeper than first glance may seem. This kind of waiting on the Lord is not a passive waiting as waiting can be. It is not like sitting in line at the drive through, waiting for your order to be ready. This waiting requires something of us. It is a pouring ourselves out to Him and meeting with Him kind of waiting. It is an active kind of waiting. And yes sometimes it’s a long time kind of waiting. 

Have you ever had something that you prayed about for a very long time and you wondered if you would ever get the answer? Or if you would get the answer you could live with anyway? I have! I have had situations and circumstances that spanned years and I would be on my knees and in my prayer chair daily and sometimes I would wonder, and maybe I still wonder if and when I will get the answer. Or if the answer will ever come that I can live with. I want to say I’m still here Lord, I’m still waiting. But in this kind of waiting, where I bring those requests to Him every day, I find a new strength that I didn’t know I could have. I find that I can still go to work and put one foot in front of the other. Sometimes it feels as if the heartbreak and the waiting could paralyze me and make me just want to crawl back in my bed and pull the covers over my head. And sometimes that sounds nice. But it’s really not. When we do that, when we retreat, that’s not where the strength will come in. 

So how do we get this strength? Some versions of this verse use a different word than wait. Some use hope and trust. This waiting, this hoping, this trusting will give us strength as we actively seek Him and pour out to Him what is on our hearts. We can’t expect Him to just pour into us what we need to make it through every day even with our broken hearts and our worries and our circumstances. We must bring them to Him, pour them out to Him, and then His strength pours into us. 

And then…. 

After we have gone to heavenly places with Him. We mounted up on wings of Eagles and soared to the heavenly places! 

We have set our feet to run the race that is set before us, our race, no one else’s. The one that the Lord gave us, this life, this family, these circumstances, whatever they are. 

We walk it out. We hold our head up and we go in the strength He gives us to face the day. Yes this says we will walk and not faint. My friends I have had days where I questioned that. Could I really walk out the day without fainting because I was so tired of the stuff I was dealing with? But I can tell you now, looking back that the strength He would give me for days like that was minute by minute. I truly believe the strength to walk it out only came because of the seeking and the pursuing and the clinging to Him that I was doing in my mornings with Him, and keeping the pursuing and the seeking at the forefront of my mind as the day went on. 

No this waiting is not a passive waiting. It’s an active waiting. But if you wait like that and you seek Him, He will give you strength. You will soar to heavenly places with Him. You will run the race He’s given you and you will be able to walk out the day.  

“If you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.” Isaiah 58:10-11

So I looked at this verse in several different versions and did a little digging to see what it meant. This verse came as the Israelites were going through the rituals of religion and this was in a chapter in Isaiah basically telling them how to truly worship God. God wants our hearts not just our going through the motions. Going to church and corporate worship is a good thing and it feeds my soul every week. However, we have all gone through times where maybe we were attending church and even having a quiet time, but we felt our prayers were, as they say, not reaching the ceiling. This chapter in Isaiah was giving instruction to God’s people on how not to just be ritualistic. 

Our focus verse is about ministering to other people and the promise of the blessing that will come when we do. Now I know that we can’t all go on missions around the world or even to our downtown areas to feed others. But I think what is being said here is that it’s about what you can do. Let’s look at the verse in another version to truly break it down. 

“Feed the hungry, and help those in trouble. Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon. The Lord will guide you continually, giving you water when you are dry and restoring your strength. You will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring.” Isaiah 58:10-11 NLT 

Simply put our directive here is “Feed the hungry, and help those in trouble.” In other words minister to the folks around you. Who in your sphere might need some ministering to and how can you help. It’s about more than just saying “I’ll pray for you.” And then do you? Now don’t get me wrong I believe wholeheartedly in the power of prayer. But that means actually doing it. Not just saying it. I have been guilty of saying it, and going on about my business. Or typing in “prayers” to someone’s need on Facebook and scrolling on. Have you stormed heaven’s gates lately for some need, someone, or something. I try to make myself stop and whisper a prayer for whomever I am telling I will pray when I say it and/or type it in. And then is there something you can physically do to minister? 

Then when you have fulfilled your part, “your light will shine out from the darkness and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon.” Oh I love that! What I thought about was times when I have felt, because of circumstances that I may have, if I pour myself out to another person’s need then my darkness is not so dark anymore. My circumstances don’t seem so hard, when I pour myself out to someone whose needs are more than mine. Whether it is that they are hungry, or in trouble in some other way, or maybe my pouring out is storming the gates of heaven in prayer for them. Maybe it’s a phone call, or a written note. The key here is when we are ministering to others, our darkness becomes as light as the noonday! 

And when we are doing that, when we are ministering and our darkness becomes light, also, the Lord will guide us and it will restore our strength! I’ve had this conversation with a few people recently. Even when you think things are bad for you, look around and you won’t have to look far to find someone who is in worse shape. What does the Lord want you to do for the one who is in worse shape? Focus on that, what can you do and let your day shine a little brighter today. Be a blessing to be blessed my friends! 

 

“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” Mark 11:24

Jesus was talking to His disciples. Well actually they were walking by a fig tree that Jesus had cursed the day before and it was withered. Peter pointed it out to Jesus, “hey that fig tree that you cursed, it’s dead now.” Jesus was teaching His disciples about faith. When Jesus cursed the fig tree, He knew that it would not survive. He had no doubt whatsoever. What He is trying to convey to His disciples is that very fact that when you pray to God for something, you should not doubt that He will answer your prayers. Let’s back up a couple of verses. 

“And Jesus answered them, ‘Have faith in God. Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, Be taken up and thrown into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.’” Mark 11:22-24

Now before we go about thinking that this is our way of getting whatever we want, we need to look at some elements of these verses. First of all we are asking in faith in God. That means that what we are asking should align with God’s will. He is not going to give us what is not for our ultimate good. That’s where the faith comes in. At least we hope not. I have learned that whatever I am praying for I always try to ask in accordance with His will. And I ask that if what I am asking is not in His will that He will change my heart. And sometimes I don’t necessarily get what I thought I wanted but I end up with what I needed. It has to be for His glory. 

The next element of this verse when He says “whoever says to this mountain, be taken up and thrown into the sea what He is talking about here is figurative. When He used the word “mountain” it was figurative for an insurmountable problem. According to the commentary I read it said that removing mountains was quite commonly used as a phrase for removing difficulties back in those days. Jesus is promising that with our faith our difficulties and obstacles can be removed. 

What we have to do is invite Him in. Invite Him in to remove the mountains in front of us. Invite Him in and then believe that He will work it out, and He will surely do it. I know that at times our obstacles seem too big and we aren’t sure that we can see the end. But my friends I have seen over and over that when I invite Him into the circumstances that are concerning me, the mountains that I feel are in front of me, and when I leave it to Him and quit trying to fix it myself, that eventually He really does work it out and it is always for my ultimate good! 

Our promise here is asking what we want in prayer and believe and trust Him, have faith that He will give us the best version of what it is we want. Jesus wants to walk with us and He wants us to have faith that He will work out our mountains, our obstacles, even a fig tree that may get in our way. 

“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” Romans 10:9-10

Salvation is a promise. But it doesn’t just come to us without action on our part. You know something I just noticed in this verse. I guess I have always thought belief in our heart must come first before confession. But look here at this verse. This verse says confess then it says believe. Hmm I wonder about this order here.

You know I have often heard that we can speak things into existence and maybe in a way that is what this is saying. If your heart is having trouble believing you speak it there first. You confess that Jesus is Lord then your heart will follow with belief in the fact that God raised Him from the dead. And when we do that when we speak Jesus is Lord and when our heart really believes our salvation is sealed! Our heart justifies us. What does that even mean? 

In Jeremiah it says that “the heart is deceitful above all things.” (Jer. 17:9) I wonder if we need to speak our confessions sometime to convince our heart to follow suit. Because our heart will bounce around and not be grounded in the fact. And then when we can know that we know Him and we believe with our whole heart we are justified. I also think when we know Him with our heart our actions will begin to follow Him. And that is what justifies us as well. When we know Him with our whole heart, we want to please Him. Those sins that we struggle with when we were not believers in Him, become less of a struggle because we know Him with our hearts and pleasing Him becomes paramount and we are justified because even though we will still sin, it’s not as easy to brush it off. We feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit in our hearts which leads to repentance of the sin. 

So backtracking here, Confession is the first step to believing with our whole heart. Most of us who may be reading this have probably got this part down. But just in case, let’s never assume. If you are struggling with unbelief in who Jesus is, you start with confessing Him. You claim Him to be your Lord and Savior. Just like the father of the child who was sick in Mark 9. He had heard about this Jesus and he had heard that he could heal so why not take a chance and ask. And when he says to Jesus “if you can do anything”. Look at Jesus response. 

“And Jesus said to him, ‘If you can! All things are possible for one who believes.’” Mark 9:23

And then: 

“Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, ‘I believe; help my unbelief’” Mark 9:24

I love the pure honesty in that verse. When Jesus told the father that he must believe, he claimed his belief that Jesus could heal but he was also asking Jesus to help his heart to believe! 

My friends if you are not sure of your salvation, your first step is to confess it. We are promised salvation from our confession. Then believe it in your heart, believe Him who died on the cross for us, and then our hearts are justified with Him. 

Also friends if you are not sure of this and want to talk to someone, send me a private message it would be my honor. And if not me, find a close trusted friend or pastor to discuss it with. 

“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” James 4:8

This is our focus promise for today. We are moving into our conditional promises of God. For the next couple of weeks we will look at some of the promises of God that require some action on our part. This promise reads pretty simply, but it can seem pretty hard to do. It all depends on how you look at it. 

Man generally likes to say and think “I’m my own boss. I’m in control of my own destiny. I have my own rights” Basically “I’ve got this.” And then when we make a mess of things we want to ask God to come in and clean up our messes. And thankfully many times He does just that for us. The truth is, we are all submitting to something whether we like to think we are or not. It’s just that if we aren’t submitting to God and asking His direction and His will for our lives, we are submitting to the devil. And that is what James is pointing out to us here, when He says “submit to God” and then he says “resist the devil.” We have to make a decision in our minds and in our hearts who we will submit to. The devil is going to try to trip us up anywhere he can. He knows our weaknesses and he knows what to throw our way. 

This is a pretty simple illustration but I have a memory that keeps popping in my mind. I haven’t always been a morning person. In fact in my much younger years, I could stay up really late and sleep until noon. I remember when I was first feeling the draw to this daily quiet time. I was a young mama who kept my friends children in my home. She was a school teacher and had to be at work very early in the morning. I wanted to be there for her as we had both been stay at home mamas together and she was in a position to have to go back to work. But I worried I was falling short of what these children needed from me. At the time my pastor kept preaching on getting in the word daily. Looking at my schedule with 3 preschoolers in my home every day and my oldest child in school the only time I could find to do this was early in the morning. So I started setting my clock to get up early to meet with God. I can remember dragging myself from my bed with voices in my head saying “you don’t need to do this. Don’t you think you need more sleep? You can find time to do this later.” I knew where those voices were coming from. Satan had no desire for me to begin my day with Jesus. And he knew at the time that sleep was my friend. I can remember one particular morning I was at the doorway to my room and I almost turned around and went back to bed. I set my feet firmly and I’m not sure if I said it out loud or not. Probably not since my husband was in the same room still sleeping but in my head I said “NO, I am not going back to bed. I am going to have my quiet time with God and I am going to do this every morning, so devil LEAVE ME ALONE!” Now I know this may sound far fetched to you but I can tell you 26 years into this daily appointment I have, with the exception of sickness or a few times I have had to adjust it because of other things, pretty much gotten up every morning. And for the most part I feel like the devil has left me alone on this one. There are times when we have to get firm with the devil and tell him NO. He is not going to get us on this one. That is submitting to God. 

The rest of this promise “draw near to God and He will draw near to you!” Friends, when you seek Him, when you spend time with Him, He will certainly draw near to you. He is my best friend, He is with me always. Studying His word is one of the greatest delights of my life. He is in my thoughts all day long. I want my life to be authentic and real for Him. I pray that all can see Jesus in me. My pastor preached yesterday on being light for a dark world and I hope that my life is a light for all, for the sinner and the saint. I want others to see Jesus in me and I pray that they will want what I have. I am not saying I never mess up and the devil doesn’t look for and find other ways to get at me. He wants to put out my light. But that is part of the process of drawing near to God. The cleansing of my hands and asking God’s forgiveness for when I get it wrong and asking Him to help me to get it right. I know that not checked my mind wanders all over the place. I can find myself falling into negative thought processes and conversations before quick can get ready. That’s why I have to come to Him daily and ask Him to purify my heart. And when I do that, I do feel Him near to me. I know that as I draw near to Him, He is drawing near to me. 

“And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight, And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.’” Acts 1:9-11

For 40 days after his resurrection Jesus had appeared and disappeared to His disciples at different times. He had continued to teach them. He had fed them. He had comforted them. He had assured them when they doubted it was Him. But this time they watched Him ascend into heaven. Can you just imagine the sight? He had just reminded them of the Holy Spirit which would come to them and they wanted to know if this was when He was going to take over. He told them, they (we) would not know the time or the season that the Father has in mind. But when you receive the holy Spirit you should bear witness to Him. And then he started lifting up to heaven. I can understand why they stood there gazing into heaven. I can understand why they were fixed at the sight. When suddenly there were angels there questioning them as to why they were. And the angels said to them. 

“This Jesus,” (the same one that walked with you, the same one that healed the sick, the same one that you ate with and ministered with!) “This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, WILL COME (emphasis mine) in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” 

He will come back just as He left. 

He left physically and will so come in like manner.

He left visibly and will so come in like manner. 

He left from the Mount of Olives and will so come in like manner. 

He left in the presence of His disciples and will so come in like manner. 

He left blessing His church and will so come in like manner.

(David Guzik BLB commentary).  

This is a promise and it’s one we can hang our hat on. He will come back. We don’t know the time, we don’t know if this is the last days or not. If it is the last days we don’t know how long they will last. We don’t have any idea if Jesus will return in our lifetime or if we will go to heaven and get to watch from the sidelines. The timing does not matter as much as the being ready for whenever. I may take my last breath and see Jesus or He may return during my lifetime and I see Him in the sky. The thing for me to concern myself with is that I be ready to be on the train when He comes. But we can rest assured He will come back. Scripture says it! He WILL COME! It’s a promise! 

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” Hebrews 13:8

Oh how I love Jesus! And I love that He is constant in my life. We talked yesterday about the Word of God never changing and it stands forever. Jesus is the Word in human form and in deity! 

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.” John 1:1-4

Jesus was in the beginning of time. He was there with God when God made the heavens and the earth. God made them through and with Jesus. Jesus and God are synonymous with each other. Life and light come from them. They set this world into motion. 

Jesus came to earth as a baby and he grew into a man and He ministered and He felt sad and He felt happy and He got angry. But who He is to His core never changed. He was the same the day He was born that He was the day He was crucified. We are people that are always changing. I can’t say that my thought processes haven’t changed over time. I had different things that I thought about as a child and in my young adult years that I have different opinions on now. Jesus is not that way. Everything He thought, felt or did came back to who He is. He didn’t change His mind on issues or on people. He couldn’t lie and His ways are not like our ways nor are His thoughts like our thoughts. He is steadfast and immutable. 

Jesus is the same forever. 

“When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me saying, ‘Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.’” Revelation 1:17-18

Jesus, is eternal. Just as His word stands forever, Jesus is forever! It all comes back to Jesus! You see, I don’t really care what religion you are. What I care about is do you know Jesus? Jesus is the first and the last, He is the beginning and the end! Whatever you are standing on, make sure that it points you back to Jesus. Make sure that Jesus is preached and taught in your churches. Whatever your opinions and thought processes, even your politics, make sure they point back to Jesus! He is the reason I can still get out of bed in the mornings! Because He lives, I can face whatever comes my way. 

He has carried me through things in my life, that I thought may kill me. He has healed my heart and He is daily restoring my soul! He is my everything! And I am so grateful that I can depend on Him! 

I am grateful that I can stand on the promise that He will never change! The same Jesus that walked with the disciples and brought the dead to life and healed people and fed thousands out of almost nothing, is the same Jesus that I talk to every morning and as I go through my day. I may change, my thoughts and my circumstances may change but He never does! 

And I pray that He is the first face I see when I take my last breath on this earth. I want to see Him face to face. And I believe I will! Friends there may not be much you can depend on on this earth. But you can depend on Jesus! 

“The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.” Isaiah 40:8

As I sit and ponder how to even write about this promise I am a little intimidated. Okay, maybe a lot intimidated. The verse says it all. The word of God has stood the test of time already. It’s been translated and handed down for centuries. There have been people who have tried to destroy it and failed. I read about a couple. 

There was a Roman Emperor in 303 A.D. who demanded that all copies of scripture be burned. Yet 25 years later another Roman Emperor used government funds to prepare more copies. There was a French guy named Voltaire, he died in 1778 he believed that in 100 years of his lifetime that Christianity would be nonexistent and that the Bible would be forgotten. Fifty years after his death the Geneva Bible Society used his press and his house to produce Bibles. There have been people through the ages who have tried to say this book is not relevant and it’s outdated yet here it stands just like Isaiah said. 

Peter made reference to this scripture in 1 Peter when he was calling on christians to love each other with a pure heart. 

“Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for ‘All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.’” 1 Peter 1:22-25

Peter is calling us to a sincere brotherly love since we are Christians. We have the tried, tested, true word of God to stand on. God’s word does not die! We live in a culture that wants to cancel history, wants to cancel people who disagree with them and wants to cancel ideas that are not in line with their own. But we can be assured that this idea of cancelling will never be able to cancel God’s word. His word says it and reiterates it. The Word of the Lord stands forever! 

I know even today I have sat in many circles where we want to shake our heads and talk about what a sad time we live in. And I am not disputing that things have seemed to go a little crazy over the past couple of years and yes there are a lot of things going on in our world that are downright sad. But we, as Christians can stand firmly on the promise that God’s word stands. It has stood the test of time in the past and it will continue to stand forever! 

You know I have often heard it said and I’ve often said it myself, if you don’t like the way things are just hold on, the one thing in life you can be sure of is change. I don’t always embrace change personally. Therefore I am glad that that is not the case with God and His word! Knowing God and knowing His word is the solid rock that I stand on gives me a peace and security that this world and the circumstances in my world can’t give me. His word stands forever! 

Seasons will come and go. Circumstances will come and go. People will come and go. Life is ever changing and ever involving. Presidents and rulers and ideas will come and go. But we as Christians can stand firmly on the promise that the word of our God will stand forever!!!