To Encourage You

2 Samuel 7:25 “And now, O Lord God, confirm forever the word that you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house, and do as you have spoken.”

How’s your reading comprehension? Do you remember those exams from high school that were used to test it?  I never really liked those tests, because my thoughts could get rattled due to the time constraints of the test.  Also, I was only reading the paragraph they gave me because of the test – otherwise, I wasn’t really that interested in what the paragraph said.  Our interest in what we’re reading has so much to do with our comprehension of it.  We might peruse the newspaper because we’re interested in what might have happened over the last 24 hours, but we probably don’t study it as we might if we were to be tested on the content.  If we are interested in preparing a Thanksgiving meal and we are preparing a dish that we’ve never made before, we’ll be certain to read the recipe very carefully, for our success in preparing it will depend largely on comprehending what the recipe said.  On another level, if you were to be an heir to a great inheritance, how closely would you want to listen to the reading of the will?  Here, your reading comprehension would rise to a whole other level.  So, how well do you comprehend the words of the Bible?  What’s your reading comprehension of what GOD has written to you?  Could you pray a prayer such as that of David’s above? Could you say to God, “do as you have spoken”? 

First, do you KNOW what He has spoken?  Do you spend time reading what the eternal, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent God of heaven and earth has written to you? Are you familiar with the hundreds of promises He has given to those Who will just believe in Him? For example, do you know that He has told you that He would NEVER leave you nor forsake you (Hebrews 13:5)? Have you ever said when you were in a dark place where it seemed no one could help you, “OK, Lord, I know that you’ve said this, now, please do as you have said”?  Do you know that He has told you that He would supply your every need (Philippians 4:19)? Have you ever said to Him, “Lord, I have a great need right now.  You’ve promised to meet every need. Please do as you have said”?  And that’s just the start of the incredible promises He has made to you.  As C.H. Spurgeon said in one of his sermons on 2 Samuel 7:25, “The Lord always meant, when He said a thing, that we should remind Him of it.” Isn’t that a wonderful thought?!  You see, the Lord has meant what He has said. He is able to do what He has said. And He wants to do what He has said, but do we know enough about these things that we can say with David, “Lord do as you have spoken”?

But maybe you are not a Christian. Maybe you know almost nothing about God’s Word.  Did you know that regardless of whether you know it or not, God has said many wonderful things to you as well?  Do you know that He has said to you “whoever comes to me I will never cast out” (John 6:37)?  If not, you know it now.  So, will you come to Him and ask Him to do exactly as He has said?  Do you know that He has told you, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved” (Romans 10:9-10)? So, do you want to be forgiven of all your sins and do you want to be saved eternally from the consequences of them?  Then do what God has told you to do, and then ask Him to simply do what He has said!  He’s waiting for you to do this right now. 

You see, there’s a sobering passage in Matthew 13 from during the time Jesus walked on earth. It’s about His time in his hometown of Capernaum. He was going about doing wonderful miracles of healing and He was teaching them with the wisdom of God. And their reaction?  They said, “’Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?’And they took offense at him.” You see, they were very familiar with Him, yet they didn’t really know Him at all.  As a result, they didn’t really listen to Him. They didn’t believe anything that He said.  And the result? We are told that “he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief.”  What a sad state of affairs this was for them. What a missed opportunity at the most wonderful experiences and joys of life.

But what about you, and what about me?  Can we think we know Him “well enough” if we don’t know hardly anything He has said? Or perhaps we are very familiar with His words, but like those in Capernaum, they bounce off us like water off a duck’s back because of our unbelief.  Don’t miss the opportunity to have a relationship with the Son of God. Don’t miss the opportunities He’s giving you to hear His words. And above all, don’t miss the incredible privilege He has extended to us to call out to Him in simple faith and ask Him to do exactly what He has said!