Press the arrow to listen to Mercy Me sing “Word of God Speak” as you read today’s devotion about God’s promises.
Scripture
The Lord’s promises are pure,
like silver refined in a furnace,
purified seven times over. Psalm 12:6
Observation
What would need to be purified out of one of God’s promises? That’s the question I have when I read Psalm 12. Why would a promise of God need to be purified seven times over? What impurity would be in something God has spoken?
I think the impurity could very well be us. God gives to us the promise but we are apt to misunderstand it and misapply it. So the promise begins its work of purifying us over and over again until our live aligns with the promise of God.
What are our impurities?
- Assumptions. We jump to conclusions of how a promise is going to work out instead of holding it lightly so God can interpret it for us.
- Motives. We often want, what God wants for the wrong reasons. So we must be put through hardship to reveal to us what is wrong in our motives.
- Simplistic. We can see the promise in the distance like mountain ranges. What is far away looks deceptively near. We forget that on the way to the peak there are deep valleys.
- Misdirected. We think that God’s love for us means that he dislikes those we dislike. So we perceive our promise as either favoritism or as ammunition against others. His plan for us could very well be designed to help those who have harmed us.
I’m sure there are more, but the bottom line is that God gives us promises not just to answer our prayers but to change us. This was Joseph’s story. He was given a dream at the age of 17 not just to paint a bright future, but to change Joseph in the process.
He sent a man before them,
Joseph, who was sold as a slave.
They afflicted his feet with fetters,
He himself was laid in irons;
Until the time that his word came to pass,
The word of the LORD tested him. Psalm 105:17-19
The very desires God has given to us are part of the process of making us who he wants us to be.
Application
There is much that God wants to change in my life, therefore he gives me promises. I will be refined seven times, but I will come out pure silver with a life that aligns with the words I have been given. So I choose to submit to the process.
Prayer
Father, I accept that the promises you give are as much about changing me as they are about changing my circumstances. So I ask this day Lord that you would use the promises you have given to me to change me. Amen.
