On one condition...
I had spent time in the bible for the first time in years as a seventeen year old girl completely overwhelmed by how much good news there was to read in this leather bound book with my full name printed in the bottom right corner of the cover. This gift had always been precious to me but had collected dust for a while. It was becoming the lifeline I did not realize my soul needed.
I quickly quipped a scripture from the book of Romans in the New Testament that I had been rolling around in my head to a leader from church. We were discussing some hard things happening and I said, “Oh but we know that God is working in all things for the good of those who love Him!” Papa Gary looked back at me and said, “and have been called according to His purpose. Don’t ever forget there’s more to that verse. You have to look at the whole promise.”
For days - maybe years - that rolled and cycled in my head and my heart. The whole promise? What’s the difference? Wait, for whom will God work in all things for the good? It’s not just for people that love God? They have to be called, too? Who is called then?
My study turned out to be much deeper and longer the more I thought through those questions (and I’m not going to answer them here today - different post another day, maybe). My understanding of this promise from God, however, also became much deeper and prayerfully accurate as I dug in with persistence to understand what God was saying.
Now, eleven years later, I still have this same conversation with the Lord as I read His Word. God has made people promises from the very beginning but some come with conditions. I would like to know exactly how many promises come with conditions but, from my time in the Word, I believe most of them do.
My children hate when I make them a promise that comes with a condition. Promises of dessert with the condition of clean rooms or good behavior lead to meltdowns (that get me out of sugaring them up). They fear they won’t live up to the condition so they will often forfeit it from the very beginning. But, on an increasing number of occasions, they seem to be learning that we mean what we say and will fulfill their part to get the promised treat.
We all really want the reward without the work.
Unlike my human parenting promises, God’s promises are for things much more valuable than an ice cream sandwich. His conditions admittedly are a bit harder than cleaning up our toys.
I often know a promise has a condition in it when I see a word like “if” or “when”. For example: “If you make the Most High your dwelling - even the Lord, who is my refuge - then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent.” Psalm 91:9-10
It seems there is a promise to the people that God will keep you from harm and disaster if you dwell in the Lord Most High. This is a complex promise, not a quick trick to getting safety and prosperity. If my first thought is, “Awesome! I’ll just try to remain in the Lord so I never get hurt and my house doesn’t burn down!” then I have really already forfeited the promise and missed the point completely. Dwelling in the Lord is not about what we can get out of it.
Instead, I should zoom in on this verse with praise to the Lord that nothing that would ever befall me could be for my detriment if I am remaining in Him. It prompts further questions about how to remain in Him and how He becomes my refuge. Zooming out just a little, the rest of this Psalm indicates to me that if I dwell in the Lord - living with my eyes fixed on Jesus and continually returning to the Lord in every circumstance of my days - then He will be present, delivering, and satisfying my needs all my days in a variety of ways, even stating that the days will be many. Zooming further out to the entirety of scripture I recognize that the Father meets this promise with Jesus and will work in all things for my good, for I love Him and have been called according to His purpose.
That explanation could be expounded on much further but I sat down to share a little of my heart without writing a 12 page paper. Let me leave it at that … with one more note.
The conditions of God’s promises appear to be an integral part of how He executes His promise.
What I mean is that the work God requires for many promises in scripture to be fulfilled is often part of the way He fulfills the promise. Keeping with Psalm 91, the acts of remaining in God (i.e. persisting in His presence, turning to Him in prayer, holding my thoughts captive to Him, obeying His commands, etc.) will keep much harm from coming near me and will give me clarity in time of trouble to see the Lord’s sovereign hand already at work in delivering me from a trial as I pass through it. As I remain in Him, I will know His movement in my life because I will know Him better! Even the hard things will be more than bearable for the joy God instills in us as we we make Him our dwelling place. We will be as the Israelites often were when they sought God rightly before war - going into battles with assurance they had the victory long before the battle starts.
The condition of this particular promise - dwelling in the Most High God - is more of a reward than the promise itself. I mean that.
Look for His promises. Look for the conditions. Rejoice when you find them. Thank Him for His mercy to show them to us. Praise Him for His grace to fill in the gaps where we don’t measure up. Ask Him to give you strength through the Holy Spirit to meet every condition.
I quickly quipped a scripture from the book of Romans in the New Testament that I had been rolling around in my head to a leader from church. We were discussing some hard things happening and I said, “Oh but we know that God is working in all things for the good of those who love Him!” Papa Gary looked back at me and said, “and have been called according to His purpose. Don’t ever forget there’s more to that verse. You have to look at the whole promise.”
For days - maybe years - that rolled and cycled in my head and my heart. The whole promise? What’s the difference? Wait, for whom will God work in all things for the good? It’s not just for people that love God? They have to be called, too? Who is called then?
My study turned out to be much deeper and longer the more I thought through those questions (and I’m not going to answer them here today - different post another day, maybe). My understanding of this promise from God, however, also became much deeper and prayerfully accurate as I dug in with persistence to understand what God was saying.
Now, eleven years later, I still have this same conversation with the Lord as I read His Word. God has made people promises from the very beginning but some come with conditions. I would like to know exactly how many promises come with conditions but, from my time in the Word, I believe most of them do.
My children hate when I make them a promise that comes with a condition. Promises of dessert with the condition of clean rooms or good behavior lead to meltdowns (that get me out of sugaring them up). They fear they won’t live up to the condition so they will often forfeit it from the very beginning. But, on an increasing number of occasions, they seem to be learning that we mean what we say and will fulfill their part to get the promised treat.
We all really want the reward without the work.
Unlike my human parenting promises, God’s promises are for things much more valuable than an ice cream sandwich. His conditions admittedly are a bit harder than cleaning up our toys.
I often know a promise has a condition in it when I see a word like “if” or “when”. For example: “If you make the Most High your dwelling - even the Lord, who is my refuge - then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent.” Psalm 91:9-10
It seems there is a promise to the people that God will keep you from harm and disaster if you dwell in the Lord Most High. This is a complex promise, not a quick trick to getting safety and prosperity. If my first thought is, “Awesome! I’ll just try to remain in the Lord so I never get hurt and my house doesn’t burn down!” then I have really already forfeited the promise and missed the point completely. Dwelling in the Lord is not about what we can get out of it.
Instead, I should zoom in on this verse with praise to the Lord that nothing that would ever befall me could be for my detriment if I am remaining in Him. It prompts further questions about how to remain in Him and how He becomes my refuge. Zooming out just a little, the rest of this Psalm indicates to me that if I dwell in the Lord - living with my eyes fixed on Jesus and continually returning to the Lord in every circumstance of my days - then He will be present, delivering, and satisfying my needs all my days in a variety of ways, even stating that the days will be many. Zooming further out to the entirety of scripture I recognize that the Father meets this promise with Jesus and will work in all things for my good, for I love Him and have been called according to His purpose.
That explanation could be expounded on much further but I sat down to share a little of my heart without writing a 12 page paper. Let me leave it at that … with one more note.
The conditions of God’s promises appear to be an integral part of how He executes His promise.
What I mean is that the work God requires for many promises in scripture to be fulfilled is often part of the way He fulfills the promise. Keeping with Psalm 91, the acts of remaining in God (i.e. persisting in His presence, turning to Him in prayer, holding my thoughts captive to Him, obeying His commands, etc.) will keep much harm from coming near me and will give me clarity in time of trouble to see the Lord’s sovereign hand already at work in delivering me from a trial as I pass through it. As I remain in Him, I will know His movement in my life because I will know Him better! Even the hard things will be more than bearable for the joy God instills in us as we we make Him our dwelling place. We will be as the Israelites often were when they sought God rightly before war - going into battles with assurance they had the victory long before the battle starts.
The condition of this particular promise - dwelling in the Most High God - is more of a reward than the promise itself. I mean that.
Look for His promises. Look for the conditions. Rejoice when you find them. Thank Him for His mercy to show them to us. Praise Him for His grace to fill in the gaps where we don’t measure up. Ask Him to give you strength through the Holy Spirit to meet every condition.
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