When Jesus Gets Specific

Today’s Reading:

• 2 Chronicles 29:3-31:21

Faith-Stretching Verse(s):

• “If you return to the LORD, then your brothers and your children will be shown compassion by their captors and will come back to this land, for the LORD your God is gracious and compassionate. He will not turn his face from you if you return to him.” – 2 Chronicles 30:9, NLT

Thoughts:
Jesus blesses those who put their hope in Him.

It’s one thing to make broad, general promises about how Jesus will care for everyone who trusts in Him. “Make Jesus your hope, and He’ll be with you no matter what you go through.” Promises like that are easy to make and hard to challenge. Even when someone’s been forced to walk through the gates of hell itself, who can say that the promise failed?

But specific promises – that’s another story. “Pray, and Jesus will heal her.” “Sell your possessions and give to the poor, and Jesus will still feed and clothe you.” What if Jesus doesn’t heal her? What if you sell, give… and starve? Specific promises are testable. Which is scary. For one thing, what happens to me if I risk everything and lose? For another thing, what does it say about the whole question of God’s existence and trustworthiness and goodness when specific promises fail? Someone who has experienced a failed promise is left in the dust of life to sift through his questions and decide whether it was truly God who failed, or merely a man.

And yet specific promises are very much a part of the Scriptures. And they are used to motivate people (more cynical people might suggest that they’re used to manipulate people) to obedience and conformity.

Here in 2 Chronicles, newly crowned King Hezekiah starts off his reign with a zealous push for religious reform, and he wants everyone to get back on board with him to worship the LORD. He not only urges the people of his country, Judah, to attend the Passover – he sends couriers up into the country of Israel to invite them to the celebration, too!

And his couriers carry promises that are founded in earlier prophecies. If the people will repent of their wickedness and live faithfully for the LORD, God will bring their families back from captivity and oppression. What a promise! What a chance for joy! And what an opportunity for discouragement—if the promise fails.

Some of today’s “ministers” abuse the power of God’s hope-giving promises for personal gain. There are those who take every single promise—at least, every “good” one—written in the Scriptures and apply it to themselves and their followers, even when a promise is clearly intended for a specific Bible character. And there are too many who freely make promises on God’s behalf whether the promises are found in God’s Word or not. Because of the abuses, it is tempting to allow disillusionment to set in and to discard the belief that any of God’s specific promises are for us.

But when we listen to what Jesus says in the Scriptures, we can’t help but discover that some of His promises are meant for us. And rather than just claiming to “believe in Jesus” in general, He asks us to trust Him with His specific promises.

Do we dare?

For an overview of this year’s blog, please see http://threequartertank.blogspot.com/2011/01/why-do-believers-believe.html.

Too Little, Too Soon

ALL – Psalm 112:1-10
ALL – Proverbs 27:17
OT – Ezekiel 29:1-30:26
NT – Hebrews 11:32-12:13

Interesting passage for the day: And these men of faith, though they trusted God and won his approval, none of them received all that God had promised them; for God wanted them to wait and share the even better rewards that were prepared for us. – Hebrews 11:39-40, The Living Bible

Thought: If you could have everything you ever wanted in this lifetime, would that satisfy you? Would it be worth it?

If you say yes, then you aren’t dreaming big enough. If you say yes, then you’re forgetting the limitations of this lifetime. If you say, “Yes, give me my best life now,” then you’re trading down, not up.

Because those who know God know that He has better things in store for us than we can find in this lifetime. Things worth dying for. Eternity. Life. Incorruptibility. Love. Most of all, Himself.

Past men of faith are still waiting for God’s promises to be fulfilled completely. And one day—no, wait…one eternal day—they’ll be glad they were faithful.

Question: What shallow (comparatively speaking) things that can never satisfy you still tempt you to set Jesus Himself aside?

To review the Bible reading plan options, please visit http://tinyurl.com/yj2o7jz.