Friday After Ash Wednesday

6 days ago
3 min read

Have we not held on to this grace and mercy of Father God, this unalterable and binding promise which He has made to us? Does not this, too-good-to- be-true kind of promise, drive home in us, undivided hope, unmoveable trust and unshakable faith in our Father in heaven? Of what am I speaking? To what am I referring? It is to the promise we received by faith, from being brought to see who our God is and what He did for His people in ages past, as they crossed the Jordan to engage in a path that was too big for them.

We saw God in Fatherly light and might. We beheld Him in unsolicited grace and mercy. We accept Him as for us now, offering the same promises in this Lenten journey which is also too big for us. Believer! Will you not bask again in this grace? Will you not drink and feast again in this bountiful banquet of a promise? Here it is.

Hear O Israel: You are to cross over the Jordan today, and go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to heaven, a people great and tall, the descendants of Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you heard it said, Who can stand before the descendants of Anak?

Therefore understand today that the LORD your God is He who goes over before you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and bring them down before you; so you shall drive them out and destroy them quickly, as the LORD has told you. Deuteronomy 9: 1 – 3.

We offer more glorious praise and ceaseless thanks to God as our Consuming Fire who goes ahead of us. His righteous Fire will burn up dross of every base, wicked, evil desire, completely consuming them so that we will be able to throw them out. The ashes of the heart will be the victory signs that we have and are all being made free, to make this Lenten walk, in the sure knowledge of our heavenly Father’s unmatched grace.

What are these victory signs and how can we be assured of them? These are signs of promise and whatever God promises, He will perform. What then had the Lord God promised the children of Israel on that walk, when they victoriously conquered enemies bigger and stronger than they were? From the Deuteronomy text, we savour, claim, inherit and take every single promise as ours. By faith, unpretentious, uncompromising, unassisted and unwavering faith, let us receive them, fully possessing them as for us also, as we make this Lenten walk with Jesus.

1. We are promised that we will face enemies that are bigger and stronger than we.

2. We are promised that we are not going to face any of them individually or collectively, on our own, for God has given His Word of promise that He goes over before us.

3. We are promised that He is going over as a Consuming Fire.

4. We are promised that He will destroy every single enemy in our way, those we see and those we are not even aware of.

5. We are promised that He will not just destroy but He will bring every enemy down before us

6. We are promised that when God does His Mighty conquering works, we will then drive out every defeated foe, totally destroying them.

7. We are promised a completed, victorious walk in and through the Holy Spirit.

When we stand in these promises, what have we to fear? In these promises of our Lord, we have not just full assurance but full confidence in every single one of them. Why can we have such unwavering confidence? It is because the One who promises cannot lie, has never failed to perform what He speaks and delights in being faithful to His every Word.

As we leave this time fully looking to the promises of our Lord, let us carry these words of Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, whose life was perfumed, bejeweled and enriched by the promises of God. He addresses this letter, to those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1: 1b. He speaks of receiving all things through Christ, who has given all things regarding spiritual living, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 2 Peter 1: 3b – 4.