Tag: promises

What God Says

3 Tips About How to Expect God to Answer Your Prayers

Posted on by Evangeline

What can we really expect to receive from God?

I’ve been sharing my thoughts through this blog for years. I’ll admit, I’m still surprised when I get notes from women who have finally overcome infertility.

But why am I surprised? Shouldn’t I EXPECT to receive news like that on a regular basis? If I’m praying that someone receive the gift of a child from God, shouldn’t I expect that it will happen? You’d think that I would anticipate it and look for it to happen.

According to 2 Corinthians 5:21, I should.

“For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.” 2 Corinthians 1:20 NIV

God’s response to His promises is a resounding “YES” in Christ because Jesus did absolutely everything to make us eligible to receive the promises.

  • He has made us righteous so we can stand before the Father with no shame and no self-condemnation, having only an expectation of good.
  • He took every punishment that was meant to come our way so that we could take every blessing that was meant to come His way.

Jesus did it all because He loved us and valued us above His own life.

3 Tips For How To Expect More

  1. Remind yourself daily that Jesus loves you.
  2. Pray God’s specific promises about your circumstances, with confidence that He meant what He said (yes, that means you’ll need to research Scriptures 🙂 ).
  3. Envision yourself having what He promised, expect to experience it, and thank Him for it in advance.

Jesus did everything it takes for us to experience and enjoy every promise the Father made. That’s why we can confidently expect good gifts and perfect gifts to come our way. Our part is to simply believe His promises.

What are you praying for today? If it’s based on the promises of God, are you EXPECTING what you prayed to happen?

 

 

 

resurrection

Resurrection of Your Confidence in His Promises

Posted on by Evangeline

After Jesus willingly gave His life on the cross for everyone in the world (even the unborn), He did not just leave an empty tomb as proof that He had risen. He chose to once again demonstrate His love for us by presenting “Himself to them [believers] and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3 NIV). Jesus did not want to leave His followers wondering what happened once they saw that His tomb was empty. He wanted to convince them that He indeed had risen. His resurrection served as proof of His finished work on the cross for the justification [freedom from guilt and the penalty of sin] of all who choose to believe in Him!

Two thousand years later, we can live in that freedom because we believe in Jesus’ resurrection.

I think Jesus stayed on earth so long after His death because He wanted to make sure that those who believed in Him had not lost hope. Some may have lost hope because Jesus did not become the reigning King of Israel as they had envisioned Him. Others may have believed the Pharisees’ account of grave robbers having come to steal the body and lost hope that Jesus was really their Messiah. Isn’t that how we find ourselves sometimes–expecting Him to do something in a certain way and then losing hope when He doesn’t do it our way?

But because of His love for those believers (and us), Jesus wanted to assure them that He indeed had risen, so He patiently took time to show Himself to over 500 people (1 Corinthians 15:6). In doing so, He made sure the message of His resurrection would span the globe and stand the test of time so that generations to come could choose to believe and have hope in Him.

If you’ve lost hope for something in your life, maybe for having a baby, or advancing on your job, or overcoming a debilitating illness, RESURRECT your hope! Bring your hope back to life by finding a promise of God in the Bible that relates to your situation. Believe that promise is true for you. If you find it hard to believe, ask God to help you believe it (Mark 9:24). Then speak that promise and expect it to manifest in your life. Be persistent in speaking that promise…your enemy, the devil, will do all he can to distract you from believing and speaking it with confidence. Despite that, continue to thank God that His promise for you is sure and worthy of your trust. Rest assured, your hope will be renewed and your confidence increased as you take a stand on the promises of God.

Live to Win - cover thumbnail

Discover more about taking a confident stand on the promises of God in my upcoming book, Live to Win! 

Coming soon through major booksellers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo of cross courtesy of FreeDigitalPnotos.net

How to Have Strong Faith

Posted on by Evangeline

Have you been wondering how to have STRONG faith?

strong faith

“Let us hold tightly to the confession of faith without wavering; for He is faithful that promised.” ~ Hebrews 10:23

The character of Jesus is such that He would NEVER lie (Numbers 23:19). His character, which is completely based on love, paves the way for having strong faith in Him because He would never make a promise and then go back on His Word or fail to fulfill it. Hold tightly– don’t loosen your grip on His promises. God’s words and His promises are true. Get into the habit of confessing your faith in them out loud.  The passage in 2 Corinthians 1:20 assures us that His answers to His promises are already “Yes” in Christ.

How can you have strong faith?

Romans 10:17 informs us that faith comes by hearing:

“So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ.” (NLT)

“The Good News about Christ” is that He has finished all the work and fulfilled all the requirements necessary in order for the Father to say “Yes.” There’s no work left to be done except to believe in Jesus’ love and His willingness to bring good things into our lives (John 6:29). When we hear ourselves reading about His love and repeatedly hear ourselves saying God’s words, it builds our faith. When we hear ourselves speaking the specific promises God made about our personal situation, it builds our faith in those promises. It increases our confidence in God’s integrity, in His ability to do what seems impossible, and in His willingness to do everything He promised.

Doubt is the enemy that comes along to plug our ears to the Good News  so that we’re not hearing God’s promises. Doubt distracts us from looking to Jesus. When we’re enticed by the devil’s doubts to give up on God’s promises, we must react by speaking God’s Word to those doubts. By doing so, we choose to retain hope within our soul and expect God to do what He said He’d do. Our  soul, which consists of our mind, will, and emotions, must choose to believe the promise, speak the promise to the problem while undergirding that confession with hope, and “act as if” the promise is already true.

When we have confidence in God fulfilling His promises and we have only a strong expectation of a good outcome, that is when we are empowered and living with strong faith.

 

A Promise is a Promise

Posted on by Evangeline

Promise: a statement telling someone that you will definitely do something or that something will definitely happen in the future 

[Source: Webster’s Dictionary]

 

What is your expectation of a promise? So many people in our lives, both private and public, have broken their promises until the definition of that word has been greatly diluted.  Has Webster’s definition of promise, as being definitive and actionable, lost its strength?

What good are promises if they’re not kept?

I’ve recently gotten some feedback from a precious few who think that it’s OK to not expect that God would keep His promises. If your husband/ wife/parent/boss/etc. made a promise to you, you’d expect them to follow through and make it happen. If the promise wasn’t kept, would you be OK with that? I don’t think so!  If someone doesn’t keep their promise it makes them a liar– as far as the promise itself is concerned.  The Bible clearly tells us that God is NOT a liar which means that He keeps all of His promises (Numbers 23:19). Shouldn’t we expect God to keep His promises?

When I was 10 or 11, I joined a Girl Scout troop. Mrs. Skaggs was our troop leader. Every time we’d have a troop meeting in the large basement of her home, she would lead us in reciting the Girl Scout Promise. Here’s my tattered handbook that shows the promise we made at each meeting.

Evangeline's Junior Girl Scout Manual
Girls Scout Promise

No matter how hard I tried, I did not fully keep that promise from week to week. I was not always dutiful, helpful, or obedient. Most of the time, I wasn’t even trying to be those things.

But, God keeps ALL of His promises. 

“Not one word has failed of all the wonderful promises he gave.” 1 Kings 8:56

 

God's promises

This hangs in my laundry room as reminder.

 

 What does God say about His promises?

Here’s what He says about the matter:

God's Promises Are YES

This means that His answer to your prayer of faith in His promise, is “Yes” because of the finished work of Jesus on the cross.

His promises are sure. Confess them out loud repeatedly to renew your mind, to build your faith (faith comes by hearing), and to increase your expectation of good — your HOPE. Also, speak the Amen (“so be it”) for His promises to be manifested in your life.

Is your confidence in His promises waning? Don’t cast out His promises or your confidence in them (Hebrews 10:35,36). You can count on Him to come through, even when it seems that He’s taking too long to fulfill His promises according to your timeline.

Be encouraged as you step into the new year of 2015 believing that God keeps all His promises!

What will you do in 2015 to ensure that you take advantage of what the Father has already lovingly provided to you in His promises through Jesus?

 

 

Focus Friday-Delayed

Posted on by Evangeline

Delayed does not mean denied!

Focus on this scripture throughout the day. It’s God’s Word about His promises being firm and true for you in Jesus’ finished work on the cross. It’s what He desires us to believe. Believe it is true for you because God’s Word is Truth.

Use it as an affirmation. Speak this Word to yourself throughout the day. Personalize it by putting your name in it!

focus friday delayed

Focus Friday

Posted on by Evangeline

Focus on the following scripture throughout the day. It’s God’s Word and it’s what He desires us to believe. Believe it is true for you because God’s Word is Truth. Speak this Word to yourself throughout the day. Personalize it by putting your name in it!

“He will cover you with his feathers. He will shelter you with his wings. His faithful promises are your armor and protection.”  ~Psalm 91:4

Image courtesy of digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Image courtesy of digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Focus Friday

Posted on by Evangeline

Focus on the following scripture throughout the day. It’s God’s Word and it’s what He desires us to believe. Believe it is true for you because God’s Word is Truth. Speak this Word to yourself throughout the day. Personalize it by putting your name in it!

“…and great grace was upon them all; neither was there any among them that lacked.”

~Acts 4: 33,34~

God's goodness displayed in rainbow
Photo courtesy of Microsoft Images

Still Thankful?

Posted on by Evangeline

We just finished celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday weekend in America. Even though that weekend is set aside to more openly express thankfulness (and shopping), how can we remain thankful in the weeks and months ahead? What about today…are you still thankful?

Why should we look for things in our daily lives that could be reasons to thank God? Because giving thanks to Him is the means of focusing on the solution to the problems we have. When we give thanks in the midst of our problems, we keep victory’s door open. Thanking God when we’re dealing with trying circumstances is the best way to express that we expect Him to make good happen.

I’m not saying to thank God for the problem. My point is to thank Him for being the answer to our problem. Talking about the same problem over and over again changes nothing. Labeling yourself as being one who constantly suffers/experiences problems prolongs the problem! Continuing to talk about your dissatisfaction with being “stuck” in a negative situation is actually the language of defeat.  But, by expressing thanks and acknowledging that our full and final solution is found in Jesus, we speak the language of victory.

Trust in God’s ability and willingness to make good come out of bad. His divine power has given us everything we need [2 Peter 1:3,4]. All our solutions are found in His promises in the Bible. Find the promises related to your problem and then believe them and speak them. When we increase our knowledge of what Jesus accomplished on our behalf and how He made those promises able to be manifested, Peace and Favor are increased in our lives. That’s a reason to still be thankful everyday!

What’s your reason to still be thankful?

Photo courtesy of Dreamstime.com | Olga Vasilkova

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Infertility Sucks!

Posted on by Evangeline

Hope During Infertility

Yesterday, while talking with a friend about my experience with infertility, I was reminded of some of the emotions that surfaced during that struggle:

  • Shock
  • Devastation
  • Demoralization
  • Aloneness
  • Jealousy
  • Confusion
  • Stress
  • Shame

I felt inadequate as a woman because I couldn’t do the one thing that women can do that men can’t— give birth. There are additional depressing feelings that were brought on by infertility but the point I want to make to you is that I OVERCAME them. Thankfully, I had understanding friends who pointed me to God. They encouraged me to learn about the women in the Bible who experienced infertility and overcame it. That was a turning point for me!

If you’re struggling through the emotions of infertility (and I do mean through–don’t get stuck there), you know where I’m coming from–infertility sucks! Please know that you are not alone. Trust in the Word of God. Trust in His love for you.

Have confidence that God’s promises of fertility are true for YOU. Find and anchor your hope in them.