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Daily Devotionals
Truths to Live By - One Day at a Time
“Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses.”
God had given the land of Canaan to the people of Israel. It was theirs by divine promise. But they still had to make it their own. They had to occupy it. The rule of possession was, “Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you.”
God has given us many great and precious promises. The Bible is full of them. But we must appropriate them by faith. Only then are they really ours.
Take, for instance, the promises concerning salvation. The Lord repeatedly promises that He will give eternal life to those who repent of their sins and receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. And yet the promise does us no good until we claim it by trusting the sinners Savior.
Let us go a step further! A person may genuinely believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and yet not enjoy the assurance of salvation. For instance, he may think that it is presumption to say that he is saved. And so he may go on in doubt and darkness. The Word promises that those who believe on the Name of the Son of God have eternal life, but this must be appropriated by faith in order to be enjoyed.
God loves to be trusted. He is pleased when we take Him at His Word. He is honored when we claim the most improbable promises and reckon on them as being fulfilled.
One day when Napoleon was reviewing his troops, his horse bolted so violently that the Emperor was in danger of being thrown. A private rushed forward, seized the reins and quieted the horse.
Fully aware that his helper was a lowly private, Napoleon said, “Thank you very much, Captain!’”Taking him at his word, the private replied, “Of which regiment, sir?”
Later, when the former private rehearsed the incident to his friends, they mocked his confidence in thinking he was now a Captain. But it was true! The Emperor had said so, and he had claimed the promotion on the spot.
The believer’s situation is somewhat similar. He can be a Captain or remain a private. He can enjoy the riches that are his in Christ Jesus or live in virtual poverty. “We can have as much of God as we wish. Christ puts the key of the treasure-chamber in our hand, and bids us take all that we want. If a man is admitted into the bullion vault of a bank, and told to help himself, and comes out with one cent, whose fault is it that he is poor? Whose fault is it that Christian people generally have such scanty portions of the free riches of God?” (McLaren).
'Truths to Live By - One Day at a Time' Copyright 2007 © William MacDonald. 'Truths to Live By - One Day at a Time' articles may be reproduced in whole under the following provisions: 1) You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. You may not use the material for commercial purposes. If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material.
