Standing on the Promises
By Matt Watson
“For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.”
Everyone has doubts, worries, and anxieties. It comes with the territory of living in a broken and fallen world. We worry about all sorts of things, most of which we can’t control, including finances, job security, and our relationships.
For example, according to Bankrate, “Most (82 percent) of all U.S. adults who say money negatively impacts their mental health said it was caused by economic factors.” One survey with Insight Global says that “Nearly four of every five American workers (78%) are worried about their job security in the next recession …," while another survey said, “35% of respondents no longer trust people, and 30% of respondents suffered damage to their self-esteem due to previous romantic experiences.”
For those keeping score, that is a lot of people.
Sometimes our worries and anxieties over our circumstances grow and evolve into full-blown doubts, which means in our fear, we stop trusting God.
This was true for Gideon, even after God promised success and victory to Gideon in person. Gideon was squirreling away grain and hiding it from the Midianites when the angel of the Lord appeared. He said to Gideon, “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor… Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you? Judges 6:12, 14 ESV
Yet, despite this clear command and assurance from God to Gideon, Gideon still had doubts. It was a big army, and he was from the weakest tribe of Israel. Victory seemed ... unlikely.
But in his doubting, Gideon turned to the Lord. How he did it was imperfect, but it was still turning. Gideon tested God, twice, asking for specific signs to get assurance that God would do as he said.
Turning, not Testing
Gideon's test is an insult to God, and this account is an example of biblical description rather than a prescription (cf. Deut 6:16; Matt 4:7; 16:4). Testing God's character is faithless and fearful. But our God is mighty and is secure in himself, so in this case with Gideon, he takes the hit. He is patient, and gracious, and lets Gideon test him, even though he is the sovereign King of the universe, the Author and Creator of all things, and alone worthy of praise. But that is how gracious and merciful God is.
While the testing is not a prescription of what to do, turning to God in our fears and doubts is something we should do. We should pray and turn to God, repenting and confessing our sin of doubt, as if God is not strong enough or good enough to do as he says.
So that is the first thing we need to do when facing fear, doubt, and worries of all kinds: turn to God.
Stand on the Promises of God
In our turning to God, let us also stand on his promises. God is covenantal, he has made a legal oath with his people and will do as he says. And even though man breaks his oaths all the time, God never does. His faithfulness to keep his covenant and do the things he says he will do is an anchor to our souls, according to the author of Hebrews.
“For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, ‘Surely I will bless you and multiply you.’ And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”
Christ is the administrator of a New Covenant with God's people. What promises has God made to you through Christ's New Covenant?
In Christ, our sin is forgiven and remembered no more (Jer 31:31-34).
In Christ, we are justified and considered righteous (Rom 4:5-8).
In Christ, we can come to the Father and have a relationship with him again (John 14:6).
Renew your mind
But what if you don't know what those promises of Christ are? Take and read his Word, and in so doing, renew your mind.
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Paul says that renewing our minds through discerning God's will and focusing on what is good, acceptable, and perfect, is how we take part in being transformed. You cannot do this if you ignore God's will as revealed in his Word.
Paul also says this is partly the way to fight anxiety. The first part is to rejoice in the Lord and give God your anxieties through prayer (Phil 4:4-7). The second way is to focus on the beauty and goodness of God:
“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”
Therefore, think about higher things. Do not settle for surface-level knowledge of God. There are so many more depths and riches in God for the anxious soul if only we pursue them.
When we can live this way, trusting in God and his promises, reading his Word, and squirreling it away in our hearts and minds like Gideon did with his grain, we will be like a tree deeply rooted. No drought can kill us, because we are tapped into the Living Water.
“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.”
This article was originally published by Matthew Watson with Awake! Put on strength!, and is used under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license.