By Jim Jackson
Most Christians are already living in the moment of God’s promise of their salvation.
Romans 10:9 says, “… if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved…”
Believing it in your heart, is applying your faith. Your words of faith, lined up with God’s Word, and your act of faith made it possible for you to claim the promise of salvation — at that very moment in time.
Many times, Christians are referred to as people of hope. And, yes we are! We Christians don’t have any trouble believing in the promise of salvation because we know that our God is trustworthy. Hebrews 10:23 says: … let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm for God can be trusted to keep his promise…”
There are thousands and thousands of promises in the Bible that God has made to us Christians. The point I’m trying to make is that we Christians don’t have any trouble claiming by faith the promise of salvation — and we haven’t even seen heaven yet.
What I’d like for everyone to grasp is that, we need to move from only hoping that we can receive the promises of God, to actually living in the moment of God’s promises, which will make possible for us to experience God’s daily, weekly and yearly Victories.
If God has promised you victory over all of the troubles in your life, and he has, then we need to live in the moment of that promise of victory.
Psalms 15:15 says: “… call upon me in the day of trouble, I will deliver you, and you will honor me…”
When will God deliver you? Some day way out in the future? No! God wants you to live in the moment of that victory and give him praise for the victory. It glorifies God; that is the honor.
Then in 1 John 5:4 it says: “…for everyone born of God, overcomes the world, this is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith…”
To receive the promises of God we must receive them by faith — just like you did to receive your salvation. Hebrews 11:6 says: “… without faith, it is impossible to please God. For he that comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him…”
If God has promised you peace (and he has) then you must live in the moment of peace and claim it by faith.
Philippians 4:7 says: “… and the peace of God which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus…”
Are you getting the drift that, you must pray the promises of God, and claim them by faith, or they will never be yours?
If God has promised you healing (and he has), then you must live In the moment of his healing.
James 5:14-15 says: “… is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him…”
If you want to live in a moment of God’s promise of healing, you must be doers of God’s Word and not just listeners, and not just readers of God’s Word.
And, it’s the same way, if you want to live in the moment of God’s joy.
In John 15:11, Jesus says: “… These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full…”
What should we grasp from all of this? That none of the many promises that God has made in our Bible will be yours unless you claim them by faith and live in the moment of the promise. These promises are not for someday in the future and not something you need to hope for; they are for the here and now.
Here is an illustration to tie everything together:
A young military man named Ralph was escorting a professor from the airport to his base where he had been invited to speak. Ralph impressed the professor with his kindness and consideration to everyone he met. And the professor asked him, “Where did you learn to do these wonderful acts of kindness?” He told the professor about his tour of duty in Vietnam, about how it was his job to clear minefields, and how he watched his friends blow up before his eyes, one after another.
“I learned to live between steps,” he said. “I never knew whether the next one would be my last, so I learned to get everything I could out of the moment between when I picked up my foot and when I put it down again. Every step I took was a whole new world, and I guess I’ve just been that way ever since.”
A life of living in the moment is like living between the steps. It is a fresh understanding of the remarkable gift of God’s promises, that are meant to be experienced moment by moment each day of your life.
Jim Jackson is pastor of Shirley Friends Church. This weekly column is written by local clergy members.
