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Hey now, a friend posted a link to this on facebook and I thought it was pretty cool, so check it out, “Forfeited – God’s Unclaimed Promises and Power”
I too am on a journey to claim the promises of God, to let no gift of His go unwrapped. I’m not very good at it, mostly because I have still have some trust issues. The Lord once told me, “that’s okay, trust is for your own comfort, not mine.”
Ha! That one makes me just laugh! It’s one of those unbidden truths that you just know did not originate in your own mind. Also, the moment I heard it, I lost all guilt, fear, shame, over having trust issues. My trust issues just don’t have the power to hurt or offend God. He is totally trustworthy, I am the one who is sometimes afraid to step out of the boat.
Actually dry land. Ha! Sometimes I have trouble trusting the Lord and stepping out onto dry land…….
Anyway, it makes me a bit sad, for many years I reduced the promises of God to, you will be saved. That’s it! In churches, where we actually sang things like, “standing, standing, standing on the promises of God,” I often heard, “He’ll never give you more than you can handle.” That’s two promises of God, the only two I ever knew about for the longest time! Also, they are like, the only two that totally did not apply to my present life circumstances
I’m chuckling here, because I remember thinking, but I have wayyyy more than I can handle and I know nothing of these alleged promises we are supposedly standing in?! What’s with that??! So, God often gives us more than we can handle. Sometimes I think that’s the whole point. If we could do it all ourselves, we really wouldn’t need Him.
There are numerous real promises in the Bible and today I am frequently standing in several. One I think we can all benefit from is a promise within the tale of the Prodigal Son.
“Prodigal” is an amazing word and hardly anyone knows what it means! It’s not an errant child or a reckless person, it is from the Latin “prodigus” which means ‘ to lavish’. So, sumptuously rich, elaborate, or luxurious, to bestow in generous or extravagant quantities. You can put a, “prodigal of heavy cream” in fettucine and you really should, absolutely, but I never really understood the reference in cooking at all. What in the heck is a, “prodigal of cream?”
It’s a heavy dose, an excessive dollop, a heaping helping.
When Jesus speaks of the “prodigal” He is talking about someone lavishly blessed, the inheritor of kingdom, someone who has received generous or extravagant quantities. God’s not giving us “our fair share” or a miserly portion, He is lavishing us with generous gifts. We are all prodigals, lavishly blessed, the inheritors of a kingdom, the recipients of extravagant quantities of goodness.
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That’s a very simple promise but it can be deceptively elusive to get ahold of. The world tends to operate on scarcity, not lavish abundance as the Lord does. Also, as I was writing this I could easily imagine half a dozen Puritans coming after me with torches and pitchforks, quickly followed by 3 or four guilt mongers with tar and feathers who falsely believe “lavish” means shamefully excessive.
Just dump a prodigal of cream on them. They don’t know what they’re talking about.
See, there's this thing called biology... 
“So, God often gives us more than we can handle. Sometimes I think that’s the whole point.”
Absolutely! God seems to think He wants to give us more than we can ask or even imagine, according to the power that works in us (Eph.3:20), which is another promise gift we leave unopened. I heard a preacher say one time, “God will never give you a life that doesn’t require faith.”
Interesting take on prodigal. It has two meanings, but using your application, both actually apply. It can mean something on a lavish scale, as you pointed out, and it also means to spend loosely, wastefully, or recklessly. So the younger son was a prodigal because he squandered his father’s lavish inheritance wastefully and recklessly.
I would like to say we’re the prodigal with regard to God’s lavish gifts toward us, but most of us are more like the elder brother. We don’t utilize these lavish gifts and promises given to us at all, which is why your point is so important. We have HIM, the lavish gift giver and Promiser, living in us every day!
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You’re so right about us being the older brother, the one who stayed home! Or we think that’s who we are, anyway.
It’s interesting how words can sometimes have a different morality and meaning depending on “who” is using them. So you can be lavish with your love and grace or you can be lavish with wine and prostitutes. Being lavish is not the nature of the problem.
We had this discussion about the snake the other day, is he “crafty” or is he “prudent?” Crafty is perceived as bad, prudence is allegedly a virtue. Except it really all depends on who is using the particular skill and for what purpose! Prudence in the hands of an enemy is simply thinking ahead with some wisdom about their own agenda. Bad guys can be prudent! After all this word debate, God then turns around and tells us to be wise as serpents, so now we’re all confused. 🙂
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Reblogged this on Madison Elizabeth Baylis.
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May we continue to stand in all His promises
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