Every Command is a Promise (church bulletin cover)

There’s great hope when God tells us to do what’s impossible to do. He knows we can’t do it, and He really doesn’t want us trying to do it as if we thought we could do it ourselves.

For example, we know that God strictly commanded Israel to “drive out all the inhabitants of the land” (Numbers 33:52), and we know that it was actually God who was “driving out before you nations greater and mightier than yourselves” (Deuteronomy 4:38). In fact, God promised that it would be “the Lord your God who fights for you” as the children of Israel took the land (Deut. 3:22). So in light of all that, it makes sense for Moses to say, “...that you may go in and take possession of the good land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers by thrusting out all your enemies from before you, as the Lord has promised” (Deut. 6:18-19).

Notice it doesn’t say, “...as the Lord has commanded.” This is because God promised to do the very same thing that He had commanded His people to do. And this is why we never need to fret when God asks us to do what seems impossible. Because as we take a step of obedience to do what God has commanded, God steps in to help us accomplish what’s in His heart for us to do. We have a part – He has a part. We can’t do our part without Him, and He doesn’t want to do his part without us. So we do our part in faith-filled dependence on Him, and He does His part out of grace-filled love for us. What a wonderful arrangement!

It seems to me that this means that when God’s grace is involved, every command God gives us contains a promise that it’s by His strength that it’ll happen. That’s why I don’t want to get stressed out when God tells me to do what seems impossible — because as a child of God, we can be sure that whatever God commands is also a promise!

© 2011 by Ken Peters

Keeping God in the Picture (church bulletin cover)

There are times when personal issues come up in our lives that seem intimidatingly strong.  Impregnable.  Impossible to overcome.  They can leave us feeling like a little soldier who's standing all alone and staring way, way up at a great stone wall that's vastly higher than us, and so thick that it may as well be a mountain that we're banging on. It can be a hopeless feeling.

But look at what the Lord God did for the children of Israel: "And we took all his cities at that time... Sixty cities... All these were cities fortified with high walls, gates and bars" (Deuteronomy 3:4-5).  These were the same sort of cities that the ten spies had described when they discouraged the children of Israel from entering the Promised Land forty years earlier -- cities that were "fortified and very large" (Numbers 13:28).  It's not that the spies hadn't described those cities accurately.  It's just that their descriptions led the people to the wrong conclusions. Those cities were strong.  "Greater and mightier than yourselves" (Deut. 9:1).  Too big and strong for Israel to handle.  But if that's all we see, we're living like a people with no God.  Where is God in it all?

Deuteronomy 3:22 says, "You shall not fear them, for it is the Lord your God who fights for you."  God completes the picture, for He is always with us.  So as we stare up at the cold stone walls of the most challenging personal issues we're facing -- whether they be fears or finances, illness or estrangement -- we must not allow ourselves to be intimidated.  "Be strong and courageous." was what God told Joshua, "for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go" (Joshua 1:9).  There is Someone standing with us who dwarfs the granite walls that dwarf us, and He can crush them with a word from His mouth.  But God invites us to be a part of the battle, for God wants us to grow in faith as we learn to fight the fight of faith.  Just as when Israel later defeated five Amorite kings in a single battle, Joshua said to the children of Israel, "Do not be afraid or dismayed!  Be strong and courageous, for thus the Lord will do to all your enemies against whom you fight" (Joshua 10:25).

So like the children of Israel, we will wage these battles together, encouraged that the Lord is fighting for us!  And we will see many walls come tumbling down.

© 2010 by Ken Peters

How God knows what's in my heart (church bulletin cover)

What would God do if He wanted to know what was in my heart? Stories in the Bible indicate that He'd likely test me by sending a few challenges my way. Deuteronomy 8:2 days that God led His children for 40 years in a wilderness in order to humble them, "testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not."

That doesn't always look very nice. Deuteronomy 8:3 says that God let His people hunger. In other words, these tests weren't mild experiences. Sometimes I've come down a little hard on the Israelites for their bad attitudes and harsh words toward Moses when they wanted food or water. But would I have handled it any better?

Take Numbers 20:2-10 for example. It starts by saying, "Now there was no water for the congregation." What if God used me as a leader to lead you (along with 2-3 million other people) to where the ground was parched and you couldn't find any water for your children or yourselves (not to mention the many livestock the Israelites had)? Would you take kindly to that? The Israelites "assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron" and they quarreled with them. They wished themselves dead (20:3) and called the place they'd been led to an "evil place" compared to Egypt (20:5). This wasn't because they had no ice in their iced tea, or because they had to wear mitts and toques for an extra couple weeks of winter. It looks as though it was because their situation must have felt truly desperate.

And yet Moses called them "rebels" (20:10). Rebels because they didn't believe God no matter what the circumstances. Rebels because they complained about their hardships rather than praying for help. And rebels because they thought their old captivity was better than God's way out. So now we know what was in the hearts of the children of Israel. Does that leave me any closer to knowing what's in mine?

I have to wonder how much God tests me in similar ways, and how much God actually allows challenges in my life to become truly extreme simply to see what's in my heart, and whether I'll keep His commandments or not. If we look back at Deuteronomy 8, we can see where this is all meant to lead: It was the Lord who "led you through the great and terrifying wilderness... where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna... that He might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end" (8:15-16).

What are you going through? Is it a test? May I suggest that all of life is meant to test what's in our hearts, and that amidst both the everyday challenges and the experiences of God's faithfulness, God's desire is to do us good! And the good that He does for us will include a growing humility in our hearts as we look to Him and give Him glory in all that we go through and for all that we receive from His hand.

© 2009 by Ken Peters