Day 38: Claiming our inheritance, for the Glory of Christ

Someone calculated that there are about 8,000 promises of God in the Bible and they are all available to us when we need them, but we don't need them all at any given moment. At any given moment we need to put our foot on one particular promise that represents God's provision for our need in that given situation. So, the way I sum up 2 Corinthians 1:20 is this: "Every promise that fits my situation and meets my need is for me now." And remember the ultimate objective is the glory of God.

I want to point out an important thing that many Christians overlook. Most of God's promises are conditional! In other words, in most cases, but not in all cases, when God gives a promise He says to His people, "If you will do so-and-so, then I will do so-and-so." But we have no right to claim the promise unless we first meet the condition.

A good example of this is the promises of blessings that we look at in the beginning of this series. We studied in Deuteronomy 28 the whole list of blessings, but we need to bear in mind that the condition stated first of all is: "If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God." So, if we do not diligently listen to the voice of the Lord, we have no scriptural right to claim those blessings. We have to fulfil God's conditions.

The next thing we need to see is that the fulfilment of God's promises does not depend upon our circumstances, but upon our fulfilling God's conditions. What often happens to God's people is that a believer finds a promise which he needs and he begins to claim it and then he looks at his circumstances and he finds that his circumstances are totally unfavourable. And so, he more or less concludes, "Well, it's true. God made that promise, but this is not the situation in which God can fulfil that promise." Now, that is totally wrong. That is where many of us lose our inheritance.

We can go back again to the example of Abraham. God had promised Abraham a son of his own body who was to be his heir. He reached the age of 99 and no son had come. Why does God often allow us to come to a position of seeming impossibility before He comes out and fulfils the promises we are claiming?

I believe there are two practical reasons.

First of all, we are emptied of self-confidence. We come to the point where we know that if it's going to be done, God is going to be the one that does it. That's where Abraham came to. He knew that there was no natural possibility any longer for the promise to be fulfilled. Therefore, he had to focus his eyes solely and exclusively on God.

The second reason, I believe, is that when this happens all the glory goes to God. And remember, that's the purpose of the promises, that God may be glorified. When there's a possibility that we can do it by our own effort, then we may take some of the credit for it, but when we come to the place where we know we cannot do it by our own effort, we're exhausted of self-confidence, then the glory truly goes to God.

I would like to finish these devotions by encouraging you to do all you possibly can to claim your heritage in Christ. It is neither presumptuous, nor arrogant. David said, in Psalm 116:12-13: "What shall I render unto the LORD for all his benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD." We can never honour God better, than to enter fully in what he bought and paid for us, at such a high price. Therefore, let us claim our heritage! God bless you.