Exploring promises as a tool of growth. Part 7

Exploring promises as a tool of growth

Part 7: Make your soul the space in which God is honoured

As we expand the arena in which God is honoured, we will come up against the will of other people and organisations, some friendly to God and some hostile. We will have to recognise when we have no jurisdiction over what other people do, or have no influence to change their ways. That becomes our new mission front. However, in respect to our own lives, the value of the promise is that it becomes a powerful tool to reclaim the whole of our own lives for God. Maybe in some areas we have gone astray and need to repent – turn around and go in a new direction. Other areas will simply be those which we had not realised should be under God’s direction – perhaps we recognised some areas as “obviously to do with God” but it is only as we grow spiritually that we realise that all areas can be liberated and be made joyful by following God’s way. Perhaps there are some areas that are perfectly acceptable in God’s sight in the normal way of judging things, but we realise that God is calling us to a particular mission that requires new spiritual growth.

So, especially if you feel you are floundering, if you lack direction, or energy, if you feel you have gone astray, or if you are distressed at failure, if you simply want to live a different sort of life, if you are asking, “Where is God in my life?”, or, “What’s the point of it all?” then make a promise. Think carefully, and pray, and offer it to God, and home in on one thing. It becomes something that you can keep your eye on to gauge how well you’re doing, and a practical programme to take steps on how to do better if you find yourself still struggling to keep it. We’ve already said that it’s not the test of whether you are right with God or not, but it is what you’re working on at the moment, because you are taking specific steps to walk more closely with God. Make a place in your life where you are exerting yourself to remain true to God, and to dwell in his presence. And as that becomes for you a spiritual sanctuary in which you share the joy and peace of his presence, then stretch out your faith to expand the boundary within which he is honoured. Your aim is to walk the bounds of your own soul and to discover that within this space the love of God is all in all.