Meditation on the Word pt 2 -- Remembering the Promise

"I remember, Lord, your ancient laws, and I find comfort in them."

-Psalm 119:52

Filling our minds with the Word of God is a strong theme in both the Old and New Testaments.  The Old Testament talks of meditation -- of which the definition means to fill your mind with something in a way similar to digesting food -- or to mull over something again and again in order to receive nutrition from it.  The O.T. also speaks of "hiding the Word in your heart" and of "remembering God's Laws".

The New Testament continues this theme though in a different way stating that the way to become a partaker of God's Divine Personality and Spiritual Substance is connected to how we treat His Promises.

Law vs Promise

One of the big differences between the Old and New Testaments is the nature of the Covenant through which God chose to bless His people.  In the Old Testament God's blessing was entirely based upon the obedience of His people to His Commands -- thus we see numerous passages that state that the people of God should be careful to meditate on His Commandments so that they would be careful to do all that He commanded and thus become successful as He blessed them.

The New Testament is very different.  The nature of the covenant in the New Testament is rooted on the Cross of Christ, wherein He suffered everything that sinful man deserved to get and offers us redemption and forgiveness for our sins by embracing His Lordship and expressing faith in Him to save, heal and deliver us from the struggles of this life.

The Old Testament says "Do and be blessed" while the New Testament says "It has already been done -- you have already been blessed, only believe".

Thus we understand that the verses in the Old Testament about God blessing the people centers around them obeying His Commands and thus they are encouraged to commit His Commands to memory so that they can be careful to do them.  Yet, in the New Testament we only find the below verses regarding the power of God's Word:

"Seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature"
-2 Peter 1:3-4

Note how it says that we become partakers of the Divine Nature by God's Promises.  Consider that and it will blow your mind.  You can actually become like God if you have a value for His Promises.

The Divine Nature

The Personality and Substance of God is a huge subject that men and women of God have considered for centuries and I don't even want to act like I understand it fully, but I do know this about God:

1. He has never seen anything that is impossible to Him
2. He is never afraid
3. He is never sick
4. He has perfect moral character
5. He is never impatient
6. He is always loving

Just consider the ramifications of that -- God's Nature is available to us through His Promises.

Because this is true, we ought to take the Promises of God very seriously in our lives.  They ought to be memorized, considered, spoken, sung, written on our walls, plastered in our ceilings, engraved in our mirrors, be the subject of our conversations, fill our social media posts and on and on.

The Promises of God are the very thing that make us successful in God because through them we find access into a faith that embraces the full extent of the Work on the Cross.  Let us value them as we ought -- more than that of any earthly currency that will one day rot and decay.  Let us value them for the true eternal currency that they are.  Amen.