Claim the Promises of God

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Jesus says to the believers: “ If you continue in my word, you are

truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will

make you free” (Jn. 8.31.32).

“Let me hear what God the Lord will speak, for he will speak peace to

his people, to his faithful, to those who turn to him in their hearts”

(Ps.85. 8). Quite often many people lead lives burdened with many

problems of life. But our loving God has an answer and solution for

all the crises we face. He speaks about it in His Word. Jesus pointed

out: “Is it not the reason that you are wrong, that you know

neither the Scriptures nor the power of God?” (Mk. 12.24.). Yes,

not only that we make mistakes, but also “we are destroyed for lack of

knowledge” (Hos. 4.6).

Our Creator God has ‘a plan of welfare about our future’ (Jer. 29.11),

but our enemy, the Satan wants to ‘destroy, steal and kill’ us (Jn.

10.10). God is Truth and His Word reveals the Truth about God, about

us, about our wellbeing, about our relationship with God, ourselves

and others…But the enemy, ‘who is the father of lies’ (Jn. 8.44)

distorts this Truth and injects lies and half truths into the mind of

human beings, thereby ruining their lives. As the Holy Spirit reveals:

“The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to

the simple” (Ps. 119. 130). The word of God is powerful to remove all

darkness and to break all bondages from our lives. We should believe

firmly in God’s word so that it will transform our lives. When St. Paul

preached the word of God to the Thessalonians, “they received it not

as a human word but what it really is, God’s word” (1 Thess.2. 13)

So it is high time that we become more and more familiar with the

Truth of God’s Word, believe in it, and affirm the Truth against all

the tactics of the evil one. The Holy Spirit reminds us through St.

Paul: “Take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench

all the flaming arrows of the evil one” (Eph. 6.16). Mother Mary is

called ‘blessed’ because “she believed that there would be a

fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord” (Lk. 1.45). She is

our model to ‘treasure God’s word and ponder them in our heart’ (Lk.

2.19). May we invoke her powerful intercession, especially through

the weapon of Rosary and also pray to the Holy Spirit, the principal

author of all Scriptures (CCC 304) to help us to keep God’s word as ‘a

lamp to our feet and a light to our path’ (Ps. 119.105) so that we may

not stumble in the darkness of sin, anxiety, fear, doubt, guilt,

depression, addictions, unbelief…and all that will ‘steal, destroy and

kill’ the blessings of the Lord in our lives.

Once Mother Theresa was at the air port .The Emigration staff was

enquiring with each traveler whether he/ she was carrying any

weapons. Mother Theresa’s turn came. She was asked very politely by

the staff: “Mother, do you have any weapons?” In all humility she

replied: “Yes, I do have”. The staff said a bit furiously: “Take it out”.

Mother took out her Bible and Rosary and said: “These are my

weapons”. We have no human enemy but only the powers of

darkness (Eph.6.12); and “our weapons of our warfare are not merely

human, but they have divine power to destroy strongholds” (2

Cor.10.4). Since we fail to use our weapons in the right way, we

become a prey to the attacks of the enemy.

This small booklet is a humble attempt to expose the Light of God’s

Word against the darkness of ignorance and disbelief about God’s

Truth, which is the cause of today’s problems. Use God’s Word as a

powerful weapon against the onslaughts of Satan. How blessed our

lives will be, if we read, believe and live by God’s Word rather than

human words and human standards. “The law of the Lord is perfect,

reviving the soul; the decrees of the Lord are sure, making the simple

wise; the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the

commandment of the Lord is clear, enlightening the eyes” (Ps.

19.7,8). Jesus defeated Satan in the desert by just quoting the

Scriptures with conviction. Against the three temptations, Jesus said:

“It is written” quoting Deut 8.3, 6.16 and 6.13. Yes he used the Sword

of the Spirit, the Word of God (Eph 6.17) ’Rhema’, the spoken Word.

It is not our ‘intellectual faith or belief, but belief ‘from our heart’,

with conviction. God’s word says that we need to ‘believe with our

heart and confess with our mouth’ in order to be saved (Ro. 10.10).

Just by memorizing the Word or saying with our lips is not sufficient.

We need to believe with our heart, affirm the truth and confess and

proclaim with our mouth. Only then God’s Word will have its full

effect in us. Let this booklet help you to do that.

The more of God’s word is in my mind and heart, the less chance for

the enemy to deceive me with his lies. So let us read and meditate the

Word of God more and more when there is yet time for it, because

days will come when there will be a ‘famine for God’s word’. “People

shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord, but they shall not

find it” (Amos.8.11, 12).

The Bible scholars have pointed out that there are over 35,500 versus

in the Bible, out of which over 8000 versus are promises of God to us.

Our loving Father has given us these promises to guide us, strengthen

us, and to encourage us in our journey to our Father’s House. We are

in a Covenant relationship with our living God and when we fulfill

the conditions attached to the promises, we will experience that all

these promises are ‘Yes’ in Jesus Christ for me. In other words, when

we live in Christ, all the promises of God will be fulfilled in us.

“Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering,

for he who has promised is faithful” (Heb. 10.23)

Mary Pereira

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