The last couple months, I’ve found the need to revisit a lot of beautiful God-given promises. Promises that I’ve tucked into my life pockets like good luck charms. I’ve had to take out and prayerfully examine each one, grab the hammer and chisel, and chip off the false interpretations and fantasies that I’ve been adding to them.
There is such a fine line between clinging to his promises and clinging to our interpretations of them.
The heart is deceitful above all things
and beyond cure.
Who can understand it?
Jeremiah 17:9
That verse is profoundly clear to me right now! His promises are true, and they are spot on. It’s just almost impossible not to decipher them in light of our current circumstances, hopes, and dreams.
Can you see where this is a problem?
There is a way that seems right to a man,
But its end is the way of death.
Proverbs 14:12
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 55:19
His words are my daily bread, my living water, my life. But seeing them through any lens other than his will lead to confusion and disappointment – it’s like stirring in poison. Anytime I start adding to his words with my natural understanding, I am taking my eyes off him and inadvertently putting my trust in ME. I also risk missing the promise he sent for me!
This is what the Lord says:
“Cursed is the one who trusts in man,
who draws strength from mere flesh
and whose heart turns away from the Lord.
That person will be like a bush in the wastelands;
they will not see prosperity when it comes. They will dwell in the parched places of the desert,
in a salt land where no one lives.
Jeremiah 17:5-6
He goes on to talk about the fruitfulness and protection of those who put their trust and confidence in him alone. So I’m learning to simplify. I’m learning to stop overthinking his promises, or trying to make them fit my agenda and timing, and just hear them as they are given by the Holy Spirit. I’m learning to stop when I feel the temptation to jump to conclusions and read between the lines. I’m learning patience – that his timing is intentional, and sometimes that means it is intentionally slow. Easier said than done, I know! I’ve been struggling to figure out how to reconcile these truths. Today he reminded me that I have been given the mind of Christ and, on top of that, the instruction and revelation of the great interpreter.
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
1 Corinthians 2:12-13
What another beautiful promise! I don’t have to figure it out myself – in fact, fleshing out his words is not in my job description at all. It’s ok to settle into his words and let them speak for themselves. His promises are promises and will come to pass.
So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth;
It will not return to Me empty,
Without accomplishing what I desire,
And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.
Isaiah 55:11
Through Me 