Category: weekly Promise Project

Mattress Cooties and Makeovers

Posted on by Karyn Jeffrey

Those mattress ads that show you all the creepy cooties that lurk in your mattress give me the shivers. The magnifying glass graphic hovers over the little dust mite beasties and a solemn voice intones, “Dust mites and shed skin cells accumulate in your mattress…blah, blah, blah.” I shudder, change the channel and try to think of something clean and new. Truth is, though, we do shed cells all the time.

“I’m not the woman I used to be.” Almost every cell in my body gets cycled to the trash, so to speak, so that what made me up physically the day I was born is long gone. The “real me” is still there… but somehow the “housing” keeps changing.

In the spiritual realm it is a little more complicated. My soul –the “real me”—exists. It IS. It doesn’t alter. When I was conceived, I was conceived in sin. The “real me” was born spiritually DEAD. The weight of Adam’s sinful rebellion had fallen on me just like it has on every human being since the Garden. I was on my way to bearing the wrath of God Almighty on my sin. But, God in His mercy chose to give me spiritual LIFE. He raised the “real” me from spiritual death to eternal life.

That action was His alone. He worked in me to know and see my sinful and hopeless condition. He gave me the faith to believe that Jesus-God in the Flesh- died in my place under His holy wrath. He gave me a “makeover.” (2 Corinthians 5:17- “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold new things have come.”) And that is where this week’s promise comes in.

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God has covenanted—PROMISED—to make me know His law, to know His holiness. He has changed that old, dead “me” for an alive and new “me.”

Ezekiel 11: 19-20 explains this transaction so I can see that I really am new, not just “improved” or “revised.” It explains what being new gives me the power to do. Listen:

“And I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them. And I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and do them. Then they will be My people and I shall be their God.”

“I am not the woman I used to be.” I have a new heart. It is written on with the finger of God. (2 Corinthians 3:2-3) It enables me to do what pleases Him. I don’t have to live under the tyranny of my sinful “old self” or the torment of the enemy of our souls. I am ALIVE! I am FREE! I am God’s child! He is my God! He did this for me! Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

Question: Are you the woman or man you used to be? Or are you God’s person, with His holiness written on your heart?

Asking for a Pony

Posted on by Karyn Jeffrey

“What do you want?” I remember asking that with an exasperated sigh when being pestered by a whining child. Children’s requests are almost universally self-focused and addressed to parents who have many responses from silence to angry no’s to soft headed indulgence of foolish whims. The child often makes extravagant promises in the hope of a positive parental response. Our human parenting is so tainted by sin that we have difficulty getting a good picture of the amazing perfection of our Heavenly Father’s parenting of us.

I know that my prayers need to fall in line with God’s will. But my limited knowledge of God’s over-arching plan for the world makes it impossible for me to be absolutely sure that every request I arrow toward heaven is perfectly aligned with what God wants. So the temptation is to shrug my shoulders and sigh, “what’s the use?” and just not pray at all.

But that won’t do. We are commanded to pray. Jesus taught us to pray and we are supposed to pray with belief that we are heard. OK. So what DO I pray for? Isn’t some of what I pray for like a foolish whim that my child asks? “Mommy, I want a palomino pony for my birthday.” Really! What child asks for a plate of broccoli and a stack of books to study as a birthday gift? Isn’t it the same in the Christian walk?

Enter this amazing word from the Psalms.

Asking for a Pony

I have read this promise many times over the years and have made the assumption that surely God meant that if I was a really good girl and really doing lots of noble and good things that He would somehow be pleased enough to give me longings and desires that would please Him.

But this time, I decided to reexamine the passage. I went to my ESV Study Bible and read the notes.

“Some take “the desires” as referring to the feeling of desire, i.e. “God will shape your heart so that it desires the right things”, but the sense is rather, He will give you what your heart desires.” …as they delight themselves in the LORD, their hearts will desire the right things.”

Oh, no! That can’t be. That is TOO grand a promise. “What my heart desires?!” But there it is. Plain and simple. I am immediately reminded of the places in John’s Gospel that I have marked and read many times. Jesus Himself says six times in three chapters in John (14, 15, and 16) the exact same thing.

  • “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do…” (14:13)
  • “If you ask Me anything in my name, I will do it.” (14:14)
  • “…ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” (15:8)
  • “…whatever you ask of the Father in My name He will give to you. (15:16)
  • “If you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you. (16:23)
  • “As and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full.” (16:24)

These promises from Jesus’ lips must be read in context, but they have the same framework as the Psalmist lays out. The one who loves and obeys Jesus, the one who honors the Father has this amazing promise.

I am still pondering how big this promise is as I frame my prayers. I want help being organized today. I want the process of getting my book printed and published to go smoothly. I want to stay healthy so I can care for my family. I want to grow up spiritually. I want my family and friends to know and love Jesus, too. I want the world set right- the end of war and suffering. The list ranges from the mundane to the lofty, but all of it is part of what my heart desires. I am free to ask. I am assured He hears and will give what I request.

Jesus has commanded me to pray. He has promised to answer and so I get the privilege of entering into His wonderful plan for His world- by PRAYING.

Question: What are the desires of your heart? Have you taken them to Jesus?

Looking For The Way Of This Mess

Posted on by Karyn Jeffrey

What a mess I’ve made of things! My big mouth has gotten me in trouble again and my eye rolling and huffy sighs have fanned into flame a quarrel with my loved one. I have made a poor choice and now need to know how to “back up my truck” and start on the right path instead.

TEXT

I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you…he who trusts in the LORD, lovingkindness shall surround him. Psalm 32:8, 10

When I came to this promise in Psalm 32, I was struck by the personal nature of God’s word to the reader The beginning of the Psalm declares the misery of one who is living with sin and the blessed relief when it is confessed to God and forgiven. Then, God goes on to promise to give me instruction and tells me that if I trust Him by following His teaching I will be watched over by Him and surrounded by His mercy (another word for “lovingkindness”). Wow. How amazing is that?!

When I commit sin, I am definitely not going in the way God wants me to. So the question arises: how can I know my sin? Well, the Scripture is plain. When I measure myself against the 10 Commandments- not just the bare words but their implications- I am sobered and grieved at how far short of God’s holiness I fall. “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23 “There is none righteous, no not one!” Romans 3:10. And right now, I know my behavior has fallen way short of the way a Jesus-follower should behave. So what’s a girl to do?! Ah, listen! Hear the wonderful words from God’s lips to your heart:

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go.”

God’s guidance is no mystery that only special people get from God. Anyone who needs His direction can find it. “Oh, yes,” you say, “that’s easy for you to say, but I haven’t heard God’s voice. I don’t know what He wants me to do.”

Really? Have you made a regular habit of reading the Bible? If not, why not? When you have, what sorts of things do you find there? Hmm. Well, there is a lot about what God expects of those who follow Him, and there is plenty about not partaking in the sinful things the world does.

Check out Galatians 5: 14-21. The whole Law is summed up in loving God and your fellow man. Then, the writer goes on to say, “the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealously, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing and things like these…”

This isn’t an isolated passage. Scripture abounds in clear instruction on how to live in harmony with others and gives clear definition of sin. For instance, Philippians 2:3 says “do nothing from selfish ness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves…” THERE IT IS. SIN DEFINED AND THE RIGHT COURSE POINTED OUT. How much clearer can God’s Word to me be?

I ask again, have you been reading your Bible? If you have, it is there that you will hear God’s instruction and see the way you should go. Enjoy His loving care.

Question: Will you listen to God’s instruction by reading the Bible regularly? Will you bask in the comfort of His loving, kind gaze upon you as you follow Him?

Making Me His

Posted on by Karyn Jeffrey

Week One of my God’s Promises adventure:
Deuteronomy 30 became my Context Passage and I chose verse 6 to memorize and ponder this week.
Promise to memorize:
Deut. 30_6 NASB

Day one, I was rather troubled by the “circumcision” aspect—after all, I’m not a guy. But when I used my concordance, it led me to Colossians 2:8-15. This “circumcision” is the symbol used to describe God’s cutting away the old nature from me, making me new in Jesus Christ.
I am new in Christ! How amazing! HE did it! I didn’t seek Him. I didn’t save myself. I didn’t and can’t separate myself to be holy like Him. This is work only He can do. And here, in this verse, He promises that He has made me His own. And a really fabulous bonus in this is the joy of knowing that He will work in the lives of my descendants, too! WOW!

Yesterday I noticed in the Colossians passage that He is the one responsible for ALL the aspects of my salvation. How wonderful is that? I am not responsible for being “good enough” to “make it in to heaven.” HE did that!
Today I saw that He has forgiven ALL my transgressions. Psalm 103 immediately came to mind and when I went there, verses 11 and 12 popped out. I pondered how complete is His forgiveness of my sins–“as high as the heavens” and “as far as the east is from the west.”

That second image in particular is very strong. Think of a globe (our earth). If you were to able to walk north (of course, you have to ignore oceans and other “obstacles” for the sake of illustration) …in a straight line, and finally reach the North Pole. What happens if you keep walking the same line right across the top of the earth? That’s right. Suddenly you are going south! And if you could keep walking south until you got to the South Pole, and you crossed that barren landmark and kept walking in your straight line, what direction would you be walking? Yep. North. Hmmm. OK, now let’s start at our home again but this time let’s say you walk east. Keep walking in a straight line east. Will you ever cross a point where you won’t be going east? No. Turn around and walk west. Same thing. This is a magnificent picture of God’s complete forgiveness of our sin. I love His Word! This truth about His loving kindness to me just thrills me every time I read it.

QUESTION: What has God taught you this week in your time with Him in His Word?