2 Corinthians 1:19-20 “ For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not “Yes and No”; but in him it is always “Yes.” For in him every one of God’s promises is a “Yes.” For this reason it is through him that we say the “Amen,” to the glory of God.” Today's episode talks about the fact that God is not fickle with our promises and we shouldn't be with our promises to Him either. It also talks about how important it is to come into agreement with the Lord and how important it is to not come into agreement with the lies of the enemy! Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Every One Of God’s Promises Is A “Yes”
2 Corinthians 1:19-20 “ For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not “Yes and No”; but in him it is always “Yes.” For in him every one of God’s promises is a “Yes.” For this reason it is through him that we say the “Amen,” to the glory of God.”
I thought this was an interesting verse. When I looked up the meaning of it I found that it said God is not fickle with His promises. He does not promise something to us and then later say “no” to that promise because He doesn’t really feel like it that day. That seemed to really hit home with me today. I think I have been feeling a little fickle with commitments to God lately. I say I will get up at a certain time to pray with Him and then I hit snooze, sometimes for an hour and then I don’t have time to sit and pray with Him. Of course in the moment I tell myself that it is ok because I can pray with Him later. It doesn’t have to be first thing in the morning. This may be true for some people, however, I know myself and I know that if I do not pray with God first thing in the morning, I will not make time later. But, in that moment when I am trying to decide whether I should get up or do it later, I convince myself I will do it later.
Another way I feel I have been fickle with the Lord is with fasting. I want to fast, I truly do, and yet every time I try to come up with a plan it all seems too hard. I get overwhelmed with all the options and I don’t pick anything. I also will decide on something, for instance, I will fast from breakfast and lunch on Mondays and then just eat before class at 3. However, then Monday comes and I don’t feel like fasting, or I come up with some excuse why I can’t do it. How about you? Have you been fickle with your promises to God? Have you been sometimes “yes” and sometimes “no”?
God is not like this. He doesn’t base His actions on how He feels from day to day. When He makes a promise we can be sure He will follow through on that promise. He fulfilled all of His Old Testament promises in Jesus. Jesus also was not fickle. He didn’t want to die on a cross for our sins. He even asked His Dad if there was any other way. In Matthew 26:39 it says, “Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Jesus really didn’t want to go through the pain and suffering that He endured, and yet He didn’t say “no” He told His father if it needed to be done, He would do it.
I think this verse is an important one to remember. Sometimes we wonder about God’s promises. We wonder if they will come true. For instance, in Romans 8:28 it says, “ And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” You might be stuck in the middle of a really hard season right now. You might be really struggling to understand how God could use this for good? You might not believe that it can be used for good. I think that’s ok. We don’t have to understand how God works all the time. There is so much about Him that is a mystery. God promises to use all thins for our good and all we need to know is that He keeps His promises. God’s promises are always a “Yes.” We don’t have to understand it, we just have to believe it.
Another promise we struggle to believe is that Jesus died for our sins. We don’t necessarily have trouble believing this in the broad sense. We can all say Jesus died for our sins, and we truly believe He did for “our” sins collectively, but we struggle to believe He died for our sins personally. We struggle to accept forgiveness because we don’t believe our sins can be forgiven. We will be the first to tell others that their sins are forgiven and yet the last ones to believe it for ourselves. Why is that? Why is it so hard for us to believe that God loves us so much He is happy to forgive us when we say sorry? Don’t we do that with our loved ones? Maybe not as much our spouse, but when our kids say sorry, we usually are quick to forgive. Our heavenly Father is the same.
The last part of the verse says, “For this reason it is through him that we say the “Amen,” to the glory of God.” This is something I am just recently learning more about. In my Encounter class they talk a lot about the power of coming into agreement with something. When we say “Amen” we are saying I agree that this statement is true. When we say Amen at the end of a prayer we are coming into agreement with all those who said it. We are agreeing with everyone else who prayed that prayer that is a true prayer. When we say “Amen” at mass, for Catholics, when the priest says “The Body of Christ” we are saying, “Yes, I believe that this is the body of Christ.” When we say Amen, we are agreeing with the statement or prayer and saying, “Yes, this is true.”
There is power when you come into agreement with things. When Jesus was going around and healing people sometimes He asked the people if they wanted to be healed. He wanted them to come into agreement with the healing. Sometimes the person needed a healing asked Jesus if He wanted to heal them. In Matthew 8:2 it says, “A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” The man wanted Jesus to come into agreement with Him about his healing. Jesus agreed and the man was healed. Do you see the power of coming into agreement?
This can, unfortunately, work against us as well. Never with God, when you come into agreement with what God is saying to you, amazing things can happen. God has great and amazing things planned for your life and He is waiting for you to come into agreement for them. However, we can also come into agreement with the enemy and then that gives the enemy power. When the enemy whispers things into your ear and you adopt those things as truth, that gives the enemy power. When you agree with all the things he is saying to you, you are giving him more and more power. None of us would willingly give the enemy power, and yet that is exactly what we are doing when we believe his stupid lies, when we let him get in our head. If we are going to come into agreement with someone, let’s choose God. Let’s believe what He tells us as his promises are always a “yes” and they always result in good eventually. The enemy is a liar and he comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. Let’s be careful to make sure we are not coming into agreement with what the enemy is telling us. We don’t want to give him any more power than he already has. We are children of God, let’s live like it. Let’s come into agreement with that and not with the lies of the enemy. Take a look at your life. Have you come into agreement and believed any lies of the enemy? If so, how can you replace those lies with the promises of Christ? God’s promises are always a “yes!”
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless those listening to this episode today. Lord, we want to come into agreement with you as we know when we do it is powerful. Please help us. We want to break all agreements we made with the enemy, whether they were intentional or unintentional. Please help us. We want to belong only to you Lord! You are amazing Lord and we are so grateful that your promises are always a “yes.” We love you and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day.