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Promises...

           His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. (II Peter 1:3-4)

“As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.” (Genesis 8:22)

Over the past few days, I’ve been transplanting seedlings into larger pots. It’s becoming a challenge to find places to put them that has the light they need, but it calls to my mind God’s promise that the seasons will follow one another. In setting up the world to work this way, He has given us what we need for agriculture, which supplies many of the things we need for physical life.

Throughout the Old Testament, He made promises about the Messiah and salvation. A book I’ve just finished reading suggests that we should read Scripture in search of promises. Years ago, David Wilkerson put together the Jesus Person Pocket Promise Book. Herbert Lockyear wrote All the Promises in the Bible, and Larry Richards wrote Every Promise in the Bible, which are all helpful, but I agree with searching the Scriptures.

When the going gets tough, we need His promises, and we need to lean on those promises. They are a great place to start (or re-start) memorizing Scripture because there’s more to them than just good words. The promise of today’s first passage is that if we need it, God has given it to us. But as I’ve said before, what we think we need is often not the same as what God knows we need. And what this passage promises us is not only what we need, but specifically what we need for a godly life and to participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

That’s the thing about promises, we need to examine them to make sure we are among those to whom they are made, we need to meet the requirements and conditions if there are any, and we need the wisdom to  understand what’s really meant.

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