Have you ever wondered why your life doesn’t always reflect God’s promises?
There are over 3000 thousand promises in the Bible for those who follow God. A few well-known ones are:
“I will not leave you or forsake you” -Joshua 1:5
“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you” -James 4:8
“Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart” -Psalm 37:4
A less-known one is:
“For however many are the promises of God, in Him is the Yes. Therefore also through Him is the Amen, to the glory of God through us.
So, how do we activate God’s promises in our lives? It is “sort of” a secret formula that is involved. There are a few simple keys:
- Maintain A Soft Heart
Hebrews 3, reminds us about the children of Israel after God (with Moses’ help) brought them out of Egypt. The writer explains how their hearts were hard and rebellious, they tested God because their hearts always wandered from Him, and they didn’t know His ways (Hebrews 3:7-11).
These were the people of God. But because of their choices and hearts, God said, “They shall not enter My rest (Hebrews 3:11). This meant that they would never enter the Promised Land.
The Promised Land was a huge promise that God gave the Israelites -a land of their own -an inheritance. Because they were God’s special, chosen people. But they forfeited this promise for 40 years, because of their hardened hearts.
It’s important to remember that even Jesus’s disciples dealt with hard hearts. Mark 6:52 says, “For they had not understood about the loaves, because their heart was hardened.
When we have hard hearts we cannot understand God’s ways because it blinds us to what God is doing and saying.
Hebrews 3:7-8 urges us, “…Today if you will hear His voice, and don’t harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, like as in the days of the trial in the wilderness.
We too must keep a soft heart that is willing and open to hearing God’s voice if we want to have the promises of God.
2. Reject Unbelief
Hebrews 3:12-13 tells us to “Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. Lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”
Sin deceives us so that truth seems like a lie, and lies seem like the truth.
We shouldn’t allow sin to derail us. Unbelief and doubt are set on leading us to a hardened heart. That is what happened to the Israelites, even though they saw God’s mighty hand in miracles and wonders, they still allowed their hearts to doubt God and to grow “calloused” toward Him and His ways.
If we are living in unbelief, we cannot expect to see the promises of God in our lives. God’s promises are available to all who believe in Him, not doubters.
Hebrews 3:18-19 says, “To whom did he swear that they wouldn’t enter into His rest, but to those who were disobedient ? We see that they were not able to enter in because of unbelief.”
Believing and obeying God are keys to unlocking His promises. God rewards Faith, not unbelief.
3.Combine God’s Promises With Faith
Hebrews 4:2 explains about the people of Israel, “For indeed we have had good news preached to us, even as they also did,, but the Word they heard didn’t profit them, because it wasn’t mixed with faith by those who heard.”
The children of God heard His Word and promises, but they didn’t receive anything from God because they didn’t combine what they heard with faith. They never obtained what God promised them because they walked in unbelief instead of faith.
Faith is believing that you already have what you’re hoping for. It’s pulling God’s promises from the Spirit realm into the physical realm.
Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
It’s as if God puts His promises out there for anyone who will receive them.
For those who believe in faith that God is who He says He is and that He will do what He said He would do -no matter what the circumstances around them look like, they believe and obey anyway.
Unbelief and hardness of heart often go hand in hand.
We must be careful not to allow our hearts to harden or let unbelief creep in. God’s pro are available to us, if we will just believe in faith, obey and keep our hearts soft toward Him.
From Pity to Praise 