There’s a newish song that we’ve been singing in some of our services entitled Take You At Your Word. I love the chorus of the song. The lyrics read,
I’ll take You at Your word
If You said it, I’ll believe it
I’ve seen how good it works
If You start it, You’ll complete it
I’ll take You at Your word
Over the last week, we’ve been studying what it means for us to be people of honesty; people of our word. However, as this song reminded me, our great hope is that God is a God of his word. What he says he will do.
That was Paul’s statement to the church in Corinth. He wrote to them and said,
20 For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. (2 Corinthians 1:20)
Jesus is the way God fulfills all of his promises to us. Through Jesus our sins are forgiven, we are made right with our Heavenly Father, we are adopted into the family of God, we are sealed for redemption, and we are promised eternal life. God’s eternal “yes” to us will never cease because of the work of Jesus. As the hymn writer Edward Mote penned,
His oath, His covenant, His blood,
Support me in the whelming flood;
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my hope and stay.
Jesus is our hope and stay and we can have confidence that in him is God’s yes and amen.
We need to remember that even when we fail and fall short of the expectations we have for ourselves, God will never fail. If he said it he will do it . . . and he has done it in Christ. Jesus doesn’t call us to live with honesty and integrity so that we earn something from God. No, living with honesty and integrity increases our ability to live in the Kingdom of God, experience his freedom, and taste his joy. However, everything that needed to be earned was won by Jesus on the cross. You can take God at his word.
Pastor Ryan Paulson