13 Jan Pillow (Resting on the Promises of God) Part 3

How do we rest in the promises of God?  I’m glad you asked!

4 Righteous Realms of Resting:

1. Rest in the promises of God (II Pet. 1:3-4). Here the Bible tells us, “According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue; 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.”

First, please allow me to highlight the word “promise”. This is the Greek word epiangelos which is a Greek compound word. “Epi” means over and “angelos” means angel. Put those two words together and it literally means “over an angel”. In other words, the promises of God are even over the words of an angel.

Please allow me to elaborate. Let’s say you lost your job and you approached me with tears in your eyes the following Sunday morning. “Pastor, I am in an awful spot” you say with lots of emotion in your trembling voice. “I have lost my job and I don’t know what I’m going to do! I have 11 children, no job, no insurance and no hope! What am I going to do?” you sob. I then gently reassure you by pulling out my Bible and showing you Philippians 4:19, which says, “For my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory.” I reassure you in the most loving pastoral way possible, that according to this verse God shall supply you with another and better job!

Still sobbing you walk away from me muttering that you already know this verse. The following Wednesday you come bounding down the aisle of the sanctuary at Joy Church. I notice your demeanor has dramatically changed! You have a smile on your face, a twinkle in your eye and a leap in your step. “Wow!” I exclaim. “What happened to change your posture so vividly?” You reply with excitement in your voice, “Pastor, Sunday night after we talked an angel appeared at the foot of my bed! The glory of the Lord lit up my room like a floodlight. The angel then turned towards me and pointed his mighty finger at me and said with a loud booming voice, ‘My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus’, and then he disappeared. Pastor, now I know that I am going to get a new job!”

Now, even though I told this person the exact verse as this angel, this person was totally demoralized until an angel told him the same thing! Most of us would do the exact same thing. We would be overwhelmed by an angel coming in our room and quoting a Bible verse to us. Yet we are under–whelmed by the simplicity of God’s Word. Yet this powerful word for “promise” means “over the word of an angel”. Would to God that we would be more excited about the promises of God than we would the word of an angel!

Notice within this powerful verse that we actually can partake of the “divine nature through these exceeding, great and precious promises.” It’s like having a “divine extreme makeover”. Think about who is writing this…Peter. Peter was the original “foot in mouth” disciple. However, something transformed him from being a coward and a backslider to the first New Testament preacher in Acts one and two. He healed the cripple in Acts three and when people got within his shadow in Acts chapter five, they were healed. He later went on to be a stable, mature pastor as he shows in I and II Peter. What was the difference? The exceeding great and precious promises of God!

Next week we’ll continue our series on “Pillow…Resting in the Promises of God.”