Promises, Promises

1 Kings 8:56

Blessed be the Lord, who has given rest to His people Israel, according to all that He promised; not one word has failed of all His good promise, which He promised through Moses His servant.

Not one word of God’s promise has failed. Those are important words. Do you remember last Tuesday’s Word of the Day? It was titled Promised Health. Truly, every verse since we began this series is a promise from God. Of course that is important because we arrive at this verse which says that not one word of His promises has ever failed. See also that His promises are of good. Our God is a good God and makes good promises to His kids. There is another element, though, that I don’t want us to miss.

Look at the beginning. Yahweh, our Lord, God and Father, gives rest to His people. We are not to be a restless people emotionally or physically. Do you hear that in here? He gives us peace and comfort in our hearts and minds so that we are not in despair. Emotionally we can, and should, be peaceful and calm. Our God gives us peace of mind. This is an element of our health and of critical importance. You cannot be healthy, physically, if you are not at peace. Anxiety, anger, and angst create stress in the body which causes malady. We cannot live in distress and be physically healthy. It just does not work that way. So, this emotional rest the Lord gives us creates physical wellbeing.

Second, He gives us physical rest. If you are not resting well, then you need to speak with Father about it because you have an absolute promise and not one word of His good promise has failed. Expect to sleep and rest. Pray this verse over yourself when you go to bed. Rest well and enjoy all the promises of the Lord.

Words, Deeds and Seeds

Proverb 12: 14

A man will be satisfied with good by the fruit of his words, and the deeds of a man’s hands will return to him.

You will see this proverb again. Because there were so many good verses to choose from, I will return here after Labor Day when we resume our normal schedule. I have added a link for the entire proverb again so you can see for yourself how rich it is.

God’s kingdom works differently than the world system. The Bible is an instruction manual leading us into the truths of life. In today’s verse we are given a great insight but as we look at it closely we find that it stands in direct opposition to the way most of us have been taught.

This passage reveals that success comes from our words, rather than our hands. Our hands, it says, are sowers of seed. Now, of course, seed bears a crop. That crop will be good if the seed was good or bad if the seed was bad. So, I am thinking of this verse as identifying that what you sow with your actions will return to you. Sow kindness, reap kindness. Sow selfishness, reap selfishness.

Your success, though, is in your mouth. What are you saying??? We cannot be overly cautious about the words of our mouths. I know sometimes we use phrases in a joking manner but honestly, why would we do that? Why would we say stupid stuff even in jest?  When I read that a person’s life is filled with the fruit of his words it warns me that I should guard my mouth and ALL the words I speak. For example, I am never “scared to death.” And, you may be annoying me but I don’t need to say, “You’re killing me here.” There are dozens of examples in that vein but let’s shift gears a bit. We do the same thing with our health and our welfare. “I’m so broke I can’t pay attention.” Look again at the verse. We are filled with good by the fruit of our words. Therefore, we must speak good, and that means speaking good about our financial wellbeing, our health, and every other aspect of life. “God blesses me in everything I do. The blessing of God is following me around. God blesses my pocketbook. God meets my every need.” Those statements are just as easy to say as anything else and they are not only true, but they are ultimate truth.

Tune in to the power in your words. Speak prosperity, health and wholeness. Meanwhile sow good seed with your actions. Be kind to others considering their needs above your own (Philippians 2: 3). Sow generosity, tolerance and patience. These shall return to you.

Proverb 12