Grace and peace are multiplied to us through knowing Jesus (2 Peter 1:2-4). In some way, the more we know of him, the more his power is given. We may know ourselves and our weaknesses very well. We may be able to point to any number or weaknesses as reasons why we can’t do more or believe more or be more like him. The more we fixate on our inabilities or the circumstances, the less we feel we can do.
But grace comes, aid comes, through knowing him more, not self more. It comes through knowing him, not by trying harder with the hopelessness of our failures dragging us down.
Grace to you and peace be multiplied in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, seeing that his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and virtue; by which he has granted to us his precious and exceedingly great promises; that through these you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust.
Jesus said to Paul, when he prayed three times to remove a problem from him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” Paul then saw his weaknesses not as something to pray for God to take away, but as cracks that God was willing to fill with his ability. So Paul followed the will of God in spite of his weakness and found God more than sufficient for the task.
Paul saw God’s provision as a reason to go on, because, trusting in the great and precious promise, he expected the power of Christ to rest on him. The Israelites were overcome by the reports of giants in the land. They took the bad news as a reason not to go on, and to go back to Egypt. Like Paul, Joshua and Caleb clung to God’s promises, that he was giving them the land, he will fight for them, it was a land of milk and honey, greatly to be desired, watered by God. They eventually went in and took it from the giants in conquest after conquest.
Their faith was strengthened by being fed the manna week after week, month by month all along the journey. They knew their God. God helped them with water from the rock. God brought quail with a wind. God provided shade from the heat. God will do what he said, though there be giants. Though the way was barren. Though their water ran out. God provided.
Jehovah Raah was their Shepherd God. Jehovah Jirah was the God who Provides. Jehovah Shammah was the God who is There. They knew him through his promises, which they saw in action.
When our knowledge of him is small, we are overwhelmed with our weaknesses. When we know him, we receive strength to overcome.
The great and precious promises give us a better way of thinking than our narrower, self-centered and world-centered minds. Through the promises, we know him more. Through the promises of his aid and character we see what he is like to us and are transformed into that divine nature. As we see what he is like, as we see the greatness of the God who serves, we rise above our failures and weaknesses. We are transformed into that image. Through the promises we are putting on Christ, the mind of Christ. We are reckoning ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ.
Through the promises, we escape the polluting desires for the things of the world to set our hearts on the things of God. It is either sow to the spirit or the flesh. We may wake up to the stresses of the day with our thoughts or God’s promises. Which ones get the power of God? We can blow the cracks out of proportion in defeat or let God fill them with his help. Either fill the cracks with our words or his great and precious promises. Which is a great way to begin your day?
“Another crummy day.” or “God is a very present help in trouble.”
“Why go on? Nobody likes me.”or “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
“I’m so uncertain. I don’t know if I’m good enough or did enough.”or “We have the righteousness of God in Him. He has made us accepted in the Beloved.”
“When will this guilt ever go away?”or “You have cast all our sins as far as the east is from the west.”
“I don’t really know what to do.”or “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He will guide me with his eye.”
“Will I ever escape from this nightmare?” or “He has translated us from the power of Satan into the kingdom the Son of his love.”
“I don’t think I can go on.”or “With man this is impossible, but not with God. With God all things are possible.”
What will happen if we renew our minds with the Lord’s great and precious promises, seeing the life that lays before us through God’s eyes? What giant will be slain today? What mountain will be moved? What new strength may be found?
He who promised is faithful.
