Escaping Corruption!

My grandmother kept a promise box! As kids we would pick out a scriptural promise, but if we didn’t like it very much we would put it back and choose another one! We were very selective over which promises we wanted to learn!

As children we learned the words, but it is only as an adult that I began to really understand that unless I met the conditions attached to the promise then I couldn’t expect to receive the promised blessings. It’s only as we walk in the ways of God, outlined by the conditions, that we can then, in faith, trust God for the blessings.

Then, when I read our Scripture for today, I saw something even more important about the promises of God – it’s like a promise within a promise! Many times I have prayed with people who have been desperate over the fact that they seemed incapable of preventing themselves from slipping back into the practice of known sin. Their desire for cleansing and purity was clear enough, but somehow or other they couldn’t sustain the walk. If that is something you’re struggling with right now, then this scripture is for you.

For the promise within the promise is this – that when we enter in to the blessings of God by fulfilling the conditions for the promises of God, we will be ‘participating in the divine nature’ – which literally means that our character is taking on the nature of God. Now it is clear that God is not touched by the world’s corruption, so the more we take on the nature of God, the more easily will we escape from the corruption of this world. So may I encourage you to spend time looking at some of the many promises of God there are in the scriptures, then ask God to help you fulfil the conditions. I believe you will be amazed at the new freedom you begin to walk in from the desires that would make you vulnerable to the temptations of the enemy.

Prayer: Thank You, Lord, for the many amazing promises there are in Your Word. Help me to discover each one of them and live out the conditions for blessing in my own life, and then to walk in greater victory over the temptations that come from the corruption there is in this world. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.