AN INCREDIBLE PROMISE

Psalm 37:25 is an incredible promise to those of us who have been appointed to live in an anti-Christian time in history! “I have been young, and now am old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants begging bread.” The righteous have never been forsaken, and I assure you that you will not be the exception!

Of course, it is important to note that the key to this promise hangs on the word “righteous.”  When you and I came to Christ, we were given what the Bible calls imputed righteousness. The best way I can explain this is through the parable of the prodigal son (see Luke 15). The Bible tells us that this boy took his inheritance and went far away from his father, in the same way many of us strayed from God in our early years. He ended up in a place of famine and heartache, doing things he never believed he would be capable of. And although he knew he had no merit, one day he just got up and started to return home. To his surprise, when he got close to home, his father ran to meet him—embracing him and covering him with the finest robe in the house.

In the same way, when you decided to return to God, God met you. He embraced you and covered you with the finest robe—the blood that Jesus shed on a cross two thousand years ago.  God cleansed you and gave you a righteousness that you did not earn.

In the parable, the covering came with a ring, representing the power that the son would need in order to be the ambassador his father was calling him to be. He also was given a pair of shoes—implying that his righteousness would involve a journey. He was not called to merely stand on the road and look good and clean. No, he was called to go on a journey with his father!

Carter Conlon joined the pastoral staff of Times Square Church in 1994 at the invitation of the founding pastor, David Wilkerson, and was appointed Senior Pastor in 2001.