God has said yes to you in Christ, He means yes, and He will not change His mind!
Read / Listen
Read 2 Corinthians 1:20-22
Listen to passage & devotional:
Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 49
Q. How does Christ’s ascension
to heaven benefit us?
A. First, he pleads our cause
in heaven
in the presence of his Father.
Second, we have our
own flesh in heaven—
a guarantee that Christ our head
will take us, his members,
to himself in heaven.
Third, he sends his Spirit to us on earth
as a further guarantee.
By the Spirit’s power
we make the goal of our lives,
not earthly things,
but the things above where Christ is,
sitting at God’s right hand.
Summary
While it's difficult to determine precisely, it's estimated that God makes well over 5,000 promises in the Bible. What an astounding number, showing the love, care, compassion and mercy of our Father!
All of those promises were stamped FULFILLED when Christ ascended into heaven. It's no wonder that the angels that suddenly appeared to the stunned disciples were surprised that the disciples were longingly looking up rather than celebrating victory!
Yet we often wonder right along with the disciples where Jesus went and when will He return. As human beings, our reality is best defined by what we see, touch, taste, smell and feel, and as it is, we don't experience God in those ways. That often leaves us, just like the disciples, feeling deserted and alone.
But this week's passages have reminded us that we are very much not alone. Psalm 139 reminded us of God's omnipresence, and that even though Jesus' body is in heaven, in His divinity, majesty, grace, and Spirit He is not absent from us for a moment.
Now today we read that not only is God always with us, He - though the power of the Holy Spirit which he put in our hearts as a deposit - makes us stand firm in Christ. In other words, although you will be rocked over and over by challenges, disasters, trials, and losses in this sad world, nothing will ever completely knock you down and out of Christ's hands.
So, yes, all 5,000 promises of God are all fulfilled in Christ, but there are many that we're still waiting to see exactly how they've been fulfilled. But as you wait, be comforted that God has guaranteed those promises by sending you His Holy Spirit, so make every effort to come to know and recognize Him more and more.
Dig Deeper
Psalm 24 is a Psalm David wrote about 1,000 years before Jesus ascended into heaven that describes what Jesus' ascension was like from the perspective of the other side of the cloud which hid Jesus from the disciples' sight.
Jesus is the one with clean hands and a pure heart who may ascend the holy mountain of the Lord. Jesus is the King of glory, the Lord, strong and mighty! What a celebration unfolded in heaven as the angels welcomed Him home!
David writes, "He will receive blessing from the Lord and vindication from God His Savior." Blessing and vindication. In other words, as Paul puts it, God looked at Christ and said "Amen" to the promises He made.
Remember, the New Testament's favorite expression for your relationship to God is that you are in Christ, so since Jesus received these blessings and vindication from His Father, so have you.
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who has fulfilled every one of the thousands of promises He's made;
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that as you set your mind and heart on things above that you will recognize more and more how God has fulfilled His promises in Christ.
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - Matthew 22
