E62 - Hope’s Harbor Gritty Bible Devotions - Claiming & Applying the Promises of GOD - Part 2 of 2
Hope’s Harbor
Gritty Bible Devotions
Episode #62
Title: Claiming and Applying The Promises – Part 2 of 2
Date: July 11, 2022
Contact: info@hopesharbor.net
Key verse(s): 1 John 2:25 – ‘And this is the promise that He has promised us—eternal life.’
Intro: Claiming and applying the promises of GOD are two sides of the same coin. (For those of you in countries not familiar with American sayings, it means two parts of the same thing.)
We can claim a promise by faith, but then we must apply any principles involved. This normally means meeting conditions that are present with the promise. These involve praying in faith and choosing to believe GOD will grant the promise He makes when we do our part.
When you understand how to claim a promise and apply yourself to it consistently over time, change will come to your life. Seeing promises fulfilled to you will build your faith.
(A word about the necessity of faith, or to believe: in the New Testament alone the word faith is used 249 times and believe 124. The same word for both is normally used in the Greek. So the total is 373 times Scripture mentions faith/believe. This reveals how important our choice to believe, to exercise faith, is to GOD. This is a major condition to claiming and applying GOD’s promises.)
It can become an adventure with GOD when we claim and apply His promises, although the process is tedious at times.
Devotion focus: Understanding why GOD made promises –
So why would GOD make promises? Let’s look at definitions from the Oxford dictionary:
As a noun: A declaration or assurance that one will do a particular thing or that a particular thing will happen.
As a verb: To assure someone that one will definitely do, give, or arrange something; undertake or declare that something will happen.
From these two uses, noun (passive) and verb (action) a better understanding of GOD’s promises is possible.
Example of the noun: A particular thing will happen – The event that follows in Genesis is when GOD promised Abraham that Sarah, even though barren, would give birth to a son the following year.
Genesis 18:10 – This is GOD speaking: ‘And He said, "I will certainly return to you according to the time of life, and behold, Sarah your wife shall have a son." (Sarah was listening in the tent door which was behind him.)
Genesis 18:11 – ‘Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age; and Sarah had passed the age of childbearing.
Genesis 18:12 – ‘Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, "After I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?"’ (Meaning the pleasure of having a son.)
In vs 10, GOD promises Sarah will give birth. In vs 12 Sarah voices her lack of faith. In this instance, Sarah’s lack of faith doesn’t affect GOD’s promise to Abraham because this promise is passive in that the event will come to pass because GOD declared it would.
Example of the verb:
The background for this event is when Jehoshaphat was king; an invading army was set to come against Jerusalem. Evidently, this army was big enough to overwhelm the nation of Israel. And so the king prays…
2 Chronicles 20:11 – ‘here they are, rewarding us by coming to throw us out of Your possession which You have given us to inherit.
2 Chronicles 20:12 – ‘“O our God, will You not judge them? For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You."’
And GOD responds through a Levite priest, Jahaziel:
2 Chronicles 20:15 - ‘And he (Jahaziel) said, "Listen, all you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat! Thus says the LORD to you: 'Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not” yours, but God's.
2 Chronicles 20:16 – “Tomorrow go down against them. They will surely come up by the Ascent of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the brook before the Wilderness of Jeruel.
2 Chronicles 20:17 - “You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the LORD, who is with you, O Judah and Jerusalem!' Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them, for the LORD is with you."’
I hope this isn’t too much information; it’s just that if we can understand the context of a promise and its use, we are in a better position to pray for and receive that promise.
See if these verses help with seeing GOD’s heart in what He promises:
Jesus in John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
And Jesus made that promise knowing it will cost Him His life to fulfill it.
Romans 10:9 – ‘that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
Romans 10:13 - ‘For "WHOEVER CALLS ON THE NAME OF THE LORD SHALL BE SAVED."’
Here in Romans Paul reiterates Jesus’s promise to save, and take note of this, He saves whoever believes, whoever calls (in faith) on the name of the Lord. They shall be saved. These verses, John 3:16, and Romans 10:13 rebuke the false teaching that only certain people, the chosen ones, shall be saved. How so?
Think of being chosen like this: in marriage, each person must choose the other. When we choose GOD, He in turn has already chosen us.
On our part, this is all done in faith. For example, when we claim by faith GOD’s forgiveness and choose His Son as Savior, we then apply the promise of salvation, of being adopted as GOD’s children, by living according to the commandments of Jesus. Listen to Jesus in John 15:10 /12, 13, 14:
John 15:10 – “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.
John 15:12 – “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
John 15:13 – “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.
John 15:14 – “You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.”
Verses 10 and 14 are conditional promises by these requirements:
Vs 10: If we keep His commandments, we will abide in His love.
Vs 14: If we keep His commandments we are His friends
Summary: GOD gave promises throughout the Bible, promises He intends us to claim by faith in prayer and apply them by faith. If we study these promises to see which ones apply to us in this day and live by them, they will change our lives for the better. It may be our life in the world around us, or our spiritual lives lived before GOD. No matter.
Action to consider: You must decide whether to discover other promises and find ones that apply to your needs and desires. Try this to get started: on a 3x5 card write John 3:16 – during the coming week read it out loud to yourself and say something like this: “I choose to believe this verse applies to me. I am a saved (from GOD’s wrath) child of GOD. My name is written in the Book of Life in Heaven where none can erase it. (This truth is found in Luke 10:20 – “Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven." - and Revelation 21:27 – ‘But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.’
Next week’s devotion: Do you have grace? Verses for thought:
Rom 5:1&2 - ‘Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, vs 2 – ‘through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.’