Truly Loved + Wholly Surrendered

Continuing through my series of “ Do Not Fear ,” the next and final set of promises are promises God gave to Israel. As His chosen people, and even in the midst of their rebellion and repentance cycles, He continues to be faithful to this nation. You may already know that God promised Abram that “in [his] seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed” (Genesis 22:18, see also Genesis 12 ). God has not forgotten Israel!  The vast majority of the promises I found are in the book of Isaiah, which was written by a prophet who continuously called Israel to repentance, and in the midst, assured them of God’s faithfulness to them, to keep the remnant of Israel. Of these verses, though they specifically apply to Israel as a nation, because the Bible is the authoritative Word of God and is “ useful for teaching, for reproof, for restoration, and for training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16) for all believers , we can find hope in these verses as well because Gentiles are grafted in...

In my last post , I started a series on the instances the Bible says to not fear and how we can walk in peace knowing God’s presence is always with us, no matter where we go. The promises God gave in the Old Testament are not the only promises given. Jesus also promised His disciples they are valued, seen, and chosen—and as His disciples today, we can carry those same truths wherever we go.  We can know we are valued and seen because Jesus says in Luke 12:7, “Indeed, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows. ” In this portion of Scripture, Jesus teaches His disciples to be on guard against the Pharisees’ teaching and alludes to the persecution they will face. Since we too will face some sort of persecution and are taught to “ test the spirits ” (1 John 4:1), I believe this can be applied to us as well.  We may or may not face severe persecution, but when we do, we can know the Lord sees us in the midst of it. My pa...