Hands and feet

Hebrews 10:23 says, “So now wrap your heart tightly around the hope that lives within us, knowing that God always keeps his promises!”

I have heard many people quote that “God always keeps his promises”. Most times we take it as though these promises are being fulfilled in a vacuum but that is not how it works. Does God keep His promises? Absolutely. Do we just sit at home and fold our hands and wait for the promises of God to knock on our front door? Nope.

The Bible is all about partnership. Right from Genesis. In Genesis 1 we see God creating the whole world with His words. Then after He had spent 5 days creating, Genesis 1:25 says at the end of day 5, “… God loved what He saw, for it was beautiful.” Day 6 comes, what does God decide to do? The answer is in Genesis 1:26 which says, “Then God said, “Let us  make a man and a woman  in our image  to be like us.  Let them reign over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the livestock, over the creatures that creep along the ground,  and over the wild animals.”

God created us so we could partner with Him and rule and reign over all He had created. We were never created to sit and look pretty and wait for God to do everything by Himself. That’s not how it worked in the garden and that’s not how it works now. So how does Hebrews 10:23 work in our lives? The answer is found in…Hebrews 10!

Hebrews 10:21-22 says, “And since we now have a magnificent High Priest to welcome us into God’s house, we come closer to God and approach him  with an open heart, fully convinced that nothing will keep us at a distance from him. For our hearts have been sprinkled with blood to remove impurity, and we have been freed from an accusing conscience. Now we are clean, unstained, and presentable to God inside and out!”

First thing in receiving the promises of God is accepting the sacrifice of Jesus as being sufficient to cleanse us of our sin and our past mistakes. Then we come boldly to God knowing we have a place in His house. When I am hungry and I go visit my parents, I don’t ask for permission to go look for food in the fridge. I just walk in boldly, go to the fridge and help myself. When we know we are loved by God and we belong to Him, we can walk into His Presence and drink from His Presence because we know that will make Him smile.

The next part is in Hebrews 10:24 which says, “Discover creative ways to encourage others and to motivate them toward acts of compassion, doing beautiful works as expressions of love.” This feels like a strange verse to have come after the words, “God always keeps His promises”. But we are the hands and feet of Jesus. Most of my testimonies of how God came through for me involve people who were obedient to God and who approached me with love and compassion. When we partner with God, we can become part of someone’s testimony of how God proved Himself faithful in their life. Isn’t that amazing?! So we are not to wait around for someone to bless us, look for someone that you can bless. You have something that someone desperately needs even if it is a smile or a hug or an encouraging word.

We’ll continue next week, but in the meantime, go be a blessing to someone! Partner with God and see who in your world needs something you have.

Love and blessings,

Melissa Tsingano.