Living By God’s Promises

BY REV GOH YONG KUANG

“I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you;

I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing...and all peoples

on earth will be blessed through you.”

Genesis 12:2-3 (NIV)

It was reported* that in 1994, a 67-year-old carpenter named Russell Herman from Illinois, USA left behind a will at the time of his death. In this will, he donated the following: $2.4 billion to the tiny town of Cave-In-Rock; $1.5 billion for some development projects in south-eastern Illinois; $2.41 billion for national forests; and $2.4 billion to the city of East St. Louis. And in a final act of unprecedented generosity, he left $6 trillion to the Federal Reserve to pay off the national debt (it would take a lot more today because the debt is now over $31 trillion)!

But there was only one problem - at the time of his death, the only thing Mr. Herman actually owned was an old, motorcar! He may not have left behind anything of monetary value, but he did leave us all with a good reminder: You can’t give away what you don’t possess!

The man in the story did not have the means to make any of this a reality. Not so with God! He has all the means to make good on all His promises. In a world where people make empty promises, God can be trusted and depended upon!

God's people are those who live by God’s Promises. His promises include the blessing of a new life in Christ (2Cor.5:17), the blessing of the indwelling Holy Spirit, who is God’s guarantee that we belong to Him (Eph.1:13), and the blessing of victory over sin & death (1Cor.15:57). All these blessings, including many others, are based on God’s unchanging promises (Hebrews 6:17-18).

Like Abraham, we are blessed to be a blessing! God has promised us the blessings of participating in the Great Commission. Indeed, the greatest blessing we can share with the world is the good news of Jesus Christ. Such blessing comes with the joy of harvest (Psalm 126:5, Luke 15:6) and the promise of His presence “to the very end of age” (Matthew 28:20)!

God never made a promise that was too good to be true.

~~ Dwight L. Moody ~~

*https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1995-06-13-9506130010-story.html