FORGET THOSE THINGS

Satan has tripped up many Christians by convincing them they’ve lost something in the Lord. The fact is, it’s a terrible sin to doubt God’s love for you and to misjudge your position in Christ by your feelings. Your day-to-day standing with Jesus has nothing to do with your zeal, tears or intensity. It rests on faith alone.

Imagine how lost you would be if your salvation actually rested on your feelings. Paul urges us, “Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before” (Philippians 3:13). You’re never to rely on past emotional experiences. What matters today is your trust. Do you trust His promises to you? Are you ready to partake of His divine nature in a truly biblical way—not by emotional trips or outward evidences, but by casting yourself on His glorious promises?

“Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Peter 1:4). Peter makes it clear: We obtain Christ’s nature by appropriating God’s covenant promises, and not by any other means.

A minister once boasted to me, “I’ve finally gotten back to the faith of my youth. I’m praying more, and the Bible is my meat again. God is giving me red-hot messages for my congregation and once again I have a great love for the lost. I feel so renewed.” Just a few months later, however, this man was back down in the pits.

God does bring renewal and fresh anointing to our lives. But that’s not the food we are to live on. We are to live on a constant faith in His covenant promises. His word is unshakable, no matter how low we may feel. Our Lord will keep His promises to us: “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy” (Jude 24).