Thursday, October 27, 2011

A Promise from God

I'm one of those people who love to mark up my Bible.  When I come to verses that have great personal meaning, I highlight them and often write in the margins the date and what the verse means to me.  This morning I came across a passage that I marked on December 15, 2002.
At that time I was having a lot of serious problems with my kids.  I have four; the eldest was six when the fourth was born.  In 2002 they were all in various stages of adolescence.  I was desperate to hear from God about how things would turn out for them (my sons had serious problems) and I was praying for them from the very depths of my soul.

I remember praying, "Lord, I'm going to open my Bible and put my finger on a verse, and whatever it says, I will take as a word for you."  I don't recommend doing this on a regular basis, but in this case I opened the pages and put my finger down on Jeremiah 31:15.  Right below my finger it said, "This is what the Lord says:"
Tears came to my eyes, because I knew this was going to be my answer.  How much more specific can it be than "This is what the Lord says:"?
Here's the rest of the passage-

"This is what the Lord says, A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because her children are no more.
This is what the Lord says:  Restrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for your work will be rewarded," declares the Lord.  "They will return from the land of the enemy.  So there is hope for your future," declares the Lord.  "Your children will return to their own land."

Wow.  I was and still am completely stunned that the Lord God of the universe would answer me in such a distinct and personal way.  I consider this a promise.  My children will return to their own land, they will know salvation some day.  No one will ever convince me that my finger landed on that verse by coincidence.
The very God who spoke the universe into being can certainly let my finger land on just the passage I needed to hear.
Now in context, these verses refer to King Herod's orders to kill all the male infants in Bethlehem and it's vicinity because he'd heard that the new king of Israel had been born there.

This spring both of my daughters were baptized, and last week my daughter in law came to believe, and I have no doubt that this promise will be kept.
God always keeps His promises.  What an awesome God we serve! Here are some more promises that we have:

The greatest promise is of salvation:  "That is you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your hear that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.- Romans 10:9

"Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God- children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God"-John 1:12-13.

The right to become children of God! What an honor.  I can call the great and almighty God my Father.
And He is a good Father, who loves us unconditionally.

And Father, I thank you that some day all of my children will call you Father as well.

Here's a song for you this morning:
http://youtu.be/M08D_vJQrKU

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