"Broken Promises" -To

"They break in pieces thy people, O LORD, and afflict thine heritage." (Psalms 94:5)
There is really nothing worse than accepting the lie regarding God's ability to forgive us regardless of how many times we have let Him down. Of all the many tricks the devil would like to pull on us, this one is the one that causes more and more saints to leave the church in search of something to get lost in; whether that might be the world or some sort of religion, it causes them to leave the basic Gospel Message because it just did not work for them. It's a pretty sad day when that happens, because the message of the Gospel is not based upon our performance in any promise we might have made to God. Who told us we were to make promises that we cannot keep? You want to promise your wife that you will do this or that, that's one thing; but telling God you are not going to sin anymore, that might just cause God to chuckle, but it sits us up for some major disappointment in ourselves. Here is the deal with the way this Covenant works: God makes the promise to us, we just need to accept His promise, believing with all of heart that His promise is true and for us, personally! You know that saying, "He's so heavenly minded, he's no earthly good," well that's the ticket a perfect relationship with God. When Jesus was tempted by the devil in the wilderness, He was at His weakest, yet He did not give in to temptation because He was heavenly minded; in other words, nothing the devil had to offer Him mattered because it did not compare to the glory of heaven. Besides that, He had a relationship with the Father that could not be compromised, He knew full well that the devil just needed Him to make one mistake, just one. I hope you see the picture that paints for you and me, because we do not have the honor of being in that position. Nor does God expect us to even pretend that we are, because we are sinners saved by grace, not saved by grace so that we won't be sinners; we are going to sin, it's just a matter of when, but it's going to happen as long as we are in these bodies of flesh and bones. We are not perfect, but Jesus was! He who had no sin, died so that we could be counted sinless before God! That was the promise God made, that He would take away our sins; which included all of our sins, those we committed yesterday, today, and even tomorrow. In the light of all of that, we have an obligation, to be God's possession! That is what being a child of God is all about, we are His "heritage," His possession, inherited into His kingdom for ever and ever, based upon His promise, not our own...
"Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil -the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God's anger, just like everyone else. But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God's grace that you have been saved!) For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus. God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can't take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago." (Ephesians 2:1-10) NLT