A NEW YEAR…A MUCH NEEDED REMINDER!

GENESIS 21:1-2: “The LORD came to Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did for Sarah what he had promised.  (2)  Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the appointed time God had told him.” CSB

OBSERVATION: Have you received your New Year’s reminders? They come in the mail, on television, and in your email inbox. These reminders are the same every year. For over three months we have been told to eat, drink, and be merry – the Holidays are here! Then, the day after we are reminded that we are now overweight and need to get into shape for the New Year.

These reminders are easily ignored. We become callous over the years as we see the same pattern over and over again. It is easy to dismiss things that become too familiar. This is true in every area of life and it can affect our worship and our daily walk with the Lord. Like an ad for exercise equipment, if we are not careful, we will simply gloss over the promises of God and then go on – business as usual.

Yet – God’s reminders are not like the world’s reminders!

The world’s reminders are really not focused on my benefit. They are focused on increasing a company’s bottom line. The sporting goods chain that is hawking the latest exercise equipment really doesn’t care if I am in shape or not. It is only interested in moving inventory and using every means of marketing genius it can to do so. It is to their advantage that most of this equipment ends up in a garage sale within the year. They are set to repeat their pattern again next year with the next great new machine!

God’s reminders are not for God’s benefit. They are always for our benefit. He does not remind us of His love, grace, faithfulness, mercy, and longsuffering to prop up His image. God reminds us of these things to increase our faith, encourage our hearts, and move us from complacency to action, discouragement to hope, fear to trust. This is why it is so important to abide in God’s Word each and every day. The promises of God are more important than any life-changing supplement advertised on your favorite Cable News Channel.

I needed a good reminder this morning. The New Year is only days old but if it is anything like the previous years it will fly by. I needed to be reminded of God’s faithfulness today. What God says – He does! He is not a father who promises something to His children, only to forget or fail to fulfill this promise. God made a promise to Sarah that she would bear a son in her old age. Sarah found this hard to believe. Yet, in God’s timing, and in fulfillment of His word to Sarah, Isaac was born.

“The LORD came to Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did for Sarah what he had promised.  Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the appointed time God had told him.”

I love the phrase – “…at the appointed time.” God has an appointed time for each one of us. There are the general promises of God’s Word and the personal promises that He has spoken to each one of us through the still small voice of the Holy Spirit. We have witnessed many of these promises come to pass. Yet, there are still many of them that are waiting for their appointed time to be fulfilled. God’s reminder this morning is,

ALL OF HIS PROMISE WILL BE FULFILLED IN HIS APPOINTED TIME!

God is faithful. We may lose faith and struggle to believe but God never waivers or changes. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. If He was faithful to fulfill His promise to Sarah, He will be faithful to fulfill His promise to you and me. I don’t know about you but I needed to be reminded of this important truth this morning. I needed to hear this promise once again.

GOD WILL FULFILL ALL OF HIS PROMISES IN HIS APPOINTED TIME!

To everything, there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven. Heavenly Father, grant me the grace to be like those who through faith and patience inherited the promises. Thank you for reminding me that You are and always will be faithful to fulfill Your Word in my life!

2 Timothy 2:11-13: “This saying is trustworthy: For if we died with him, we will also live with him;  (12)  if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he will also deny us;  (13)  if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.” CSB

In Jesus’ Name!