About the Author
Written by SC
God’s Commitment to Us
When it comes to the failure of crossdressing, many of us can say, “Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.” I’m not making light of sin, I’m just saying that we are not alone in our afflictions as these same struggles are found in our brethren. They are not unique to my individual life only. I fully understand the emptiness, numbness and self-loathing that accompanies this particular sin. I especially understand the lack of enthusiasm to think that if we have fallen, we have to start all over again and give it the “old college try.” But I want to encourage everyone this morning. Not so that we can find some inner resolve and try harder next time. We all know what a dead end that is. I want to encourage everyone with God’s commitment to our success as followers of Christ.
This is not another “steps program,” or “gimmick” to try and be more disciplined as that will only bring the failed results many are experiencing now. This is literally God at work in us, doing what we neither have the capacity nor interest to do. Listen to the Apostle Peter (using my own paraphrase):
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“God’s divine power (not yours) has granted to us ALL things that pertain to life and godliness…and this power is offered through his precious and exceeding great PROMISES, so that through these PROMISES you may become a partaker of His divine nature, having escaped from the corruption (moral decay and rottenness) that is in the world because of lust (sinful desire).” (2 Pt 1:3-4)
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Read that again.
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Put aside the fact that you have heard this before and listen to it today, like it is the first time you are hearing.
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OUR SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST, HAS GIVEN EVERYTHING WE NEED THAT PERTAINS TO THIS PRESENT LIFE AND GODLY LIVING, AND IT IS ALL FOUND IN HIS EXCEEDING GREAT AND PRECIOUS “PROMISES” THAT THROUGH HIS “PROMISES” YOU WILL ACTUALLY PARTAKE OF HIS OWN DIVING NATURE AND IN FACT, ESCAPE AND BE SET FREE FROM THE LUSTFUL CORRUPTION THAT IS IN OUR HEARTS AND IN THIS WORLD!
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This is God saying, “I PROMISE you my presence, my power, my encouragement, my hope, my ability, my strength, my victory, my love, my divine nature, all is yours as a gift, if you will only put your complete and absolute trust and confidence in every promise that I give you.”
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“This is the victory that overcomes the world, even your faith” (1 Jn 5:4). Faith in what? Faith in God’s exceeding great and precious promises!
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“Take the shield of faith, whereby you may be able to quench ALL the fiery darts of the wicked one” (Eph 6:16). Faith in what? Faith in God’s exceeding great and precious promises.
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Jesus told Peter, “Satan has desire to have you, that he may cut you down like wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith fail not” (Lk 22:31). Faith in what? Faith in God’s exceeding great and precious promises. And because of this, Peter later writes: “…God has given us his exceedingly great and precious PROMISES, that through these PROMISES you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. (2 Peter 1:4).
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What makes claiming, believing and trusting in specific promises of God so appealing is that the promise is initiated by God, not by me, so it relieves me of self-effort attempts at holiness and opens the opportunity for me to rest in God’s offer, God’s blessing and God’s benefit. It doesn’t originate with me it originates with God. So the question is no longer how strong am I, but how strong is God? And his promises give me the answer. The promise puts the issue squarely in God’s lap not mine.
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My daily bible reading has allowed me to collect God’s promises like a treasure trove, a hoarded wealth that keeps me going. I wake up in the morning and my first thoughts are God’s promises to me. Here is one I want to offer you:
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“This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope. Through the Lord ’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. THEY ARE NEW EVERY MORNING; Great is Your faithfulness! ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, “Therefore I hope in Him!’ The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, To the soul who seeks Him.” (Lamentations 3:21-25)
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GOD’S MERCIES AND COMPASSIONS FAIL NOT, THEY ARE NEW EVERY MORNING! GREAT IS HIS FAITHFULNESS!
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This is not a license to sin, this is a “Get out of Jail, Free” card!” Imagine, this morning, today, this brand new day God has given us comes with his promise that his mercy and compassion are also brand new, fresh, not holding onto yesterday’s failures but offering us a whole new day to revel in his goodness and promises.
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This is the “good news” the gospel presents, that we often ignore. It’s not me trying harder or trying to prove to God that “if he just gives me one more chance, I know I can get this thing right.” God is not running an “Old Adam Improvement Society.” He wants the old man dead, but (as Vance Havner said), “too often, we dig up the old man, shake our finger in his face and say, ‘Now, you’re going to behave yourself today!'” And then we wonder why we always end up the utter failures we are.
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And I believe sometimes that the reason we actually choose our sins, is because we are not moored or tied to anything that strengthens and encourages. So we drift and drift, then allow our moods and emotions to be the loudest voice in our head until we can no longer hear God and then just say, “Whatever, what’s the point anyway.” And down we go. But when you realize that God has given us a multitude of exceeding great and precious promises, and truly meditate on those promises (some of them are so astounding I just shake my head in utter amazement), promises that not only give hope but actually infuse encouragement and strength (strange to say, but I have felt it), failing is no longer an option.
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How trustworthy are God’s promises?
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“Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord has made to the house of Israel has failed; all has come to pass.” Josh 21:45
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“…and you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one word has failed of all the good things that the Lord your God promised concerning you. All have come to pass for you; not one of them has failed.” Josh 23:14
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“Blessed be the Lord who has given rest to his people Israel, according to all that he promised. Not one word has failed of all his good promise, which he spoke by Moses his servant.” 1 Kings 8:56
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“God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?” (Num 23:19)
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Charles Spurgeon says:
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“The promises of God are to the believer an ‘inexhaustible mine of wealth’. Happy is he who knows how to search out their secret veins and enrich himself with their hidden treasures. Some Christian people are living, spiritually, on a penny a week, when their income might be ten thousand a day. You might live like kings, yet you are starving like paupers. You can by faith and trust, lay hold on God’s exceeding great and precious promises, and so fill your mouth with good things; but, instead of doing so, you are quivering with the palsy of unbelief, and so not grasping what God has put within your reach…. Oh, if our faith did but really grip the promises, and believe in the promise-keeping God, you would never rest till you possessed all the blessings that are really yours!”
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It is time we bring speak as men of valor who can tell the world of the greatness of a God who promises and delivers and cease with our cowardice language, trembling in the presence of our sin, which has already been conquered by the blood of Christ.
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