One of the things you can do to help with your Bible reading in the morning, which can grow rote and a bit perfunctory, look for a promise every morning. If you’re reading one chapter, two chapters, three, four, look for a promise. What has God promised you in His Word? To be with you, not to forsake you. To forgive you. To hear you. To bless you. Look for a promise of God and then cling to that and claim that promise. Pray the promise back to God.
I think it is sometimes a fair criticism of Reformed Christians, Presbyterian Christians, that we can be a little bit afraid to boldly ask God for things. At least I know that to be true in my own heart. I fall back, as we should, but maybe too quickly, on “not my will, but Yours be done.” Now that’s good. When you pray, Jesus said that, so we should have that attitude of mind, “not my will, Lord, but Yours be done.”
Yet sometimes I fear that it can make us rather passive and rather afraid. We don’t want to get our hopes up. If you’ve got a sports team, if you have sports teams like mine, no reason to have any hope about anything ever. Always dashed. I am that typical sports fan. First play of the game, it doesn’t go well, “Game over. Kids, turn it off. This is gone.” And I’m almost always right.
We can feel like that as Christians sometimes. “Nope, God won’t do it. Nope, never. But guard my heart.”
Ask. Seek. Knock. Claim the promises of God. Be gutsy in your faith. Be bold in asking God for help and assistance. Be like Caleb. Be like Achsah.
That’s the first lesson. Be gutsy in claiming the promises of God.
This clip is part of the sermon “Dividing the Land, Trusting the Lord” delivered by Dr. Kevin DeYoung at Christ Covenant Church in Matthews, NC on December 1, 2024.