God wants a relationship and fellowship with us here on earth, as well as eternally in heaven. You may think God is not interested in the details of our everyday life, problems and good times both. If God were interested in us going to heaven ONLY, then he would make sure the moment we are saved i.e. we repent from our sins and accept Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, he would transport us immediately to heaven. A pain-free journey with a happy ending. But it is not so.
For me, the moment we are saved is similar to the moment the children of crossed the Red Sea from , a land of slavery where they were saved only by the Passover blood. They didn’t immediately get into the Promised Land. Rather, they went through the desert where they faced many troubles. They had no water and God provided water out of a rock. When they wanted meat, God provided it for more than half a million people in the desert. When bitten by snakes, he healed them. When in battle, he gave them victory.
This is a picture of what we should expect, in this fallen world, the moment we are born again in Christ. For me, life has become such a joy because the scriptures have made me wiser. I expect God to do the impossible, like he did in the Old Testament. I have come to realise the battles I face every day, don’t have to be faced alone. And when I am in Christ, a thousand may fall to the left and ten thousand to the right, but it will never come near me.
In the past I used to focus only on the New Testament until someone taught me the following:
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree." He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit. Galatians 3: 13-14 [NIV, author’s emphasis]
In Deuteronomy 28 (verse 15 onwards) it is written that sickness and disease is a curse. So when I pray, I talk to God about Abraham (I never read anywhere that he was sick). In fact he died in good old age. So, since I am in Christ, I ask God for the blessing of long life. When I needed a house, I used to talk to God about Abraham whom he promised land. People in Abraham’s time were nomads and farmers, they were told by God to put their trust in God to the extent they could sow in drought by faith and receive a hundred fold.
I used to question God why he created me different in colour from others, why I was born in a poor environment, why he permitted sickness in my life, etc. In fact I thought he was mean and always angry with man. Then I learnt NO, he is the opposite. He wants me to know him personally as a good God when he delivers me from sickness, financial problems and the “Amelekites” of my day. Did Abraham honour God with tithes? Yes he did. I know many who claim the blessings of Malachi 3 (promises of the Spirit) in prayers yet they don’t want to honour God with their finances. I was sitting in church the other day and a rough head count shows we are more than 250 regulars. Then I said to myself “if all people were to give a tithe could we not see God doing more miracles of provision through us?”
It’s all about obeying God’s promises and receiving covenant promises by faith, irrespective of whether it’s a New or Old Testament promise. Had I not believed, I would not be here and I would never have tasted the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
