His Promises Remain
My eyes are dry
My faith is old
My heart is hard
My prayers are cold
And I know how I ought to be
Alive to You and dead to meBut what can be done
My Eyes Are Dry by Keith Green.
For an old heart like mine
Soften it up
With oil and wine
The oil is You, Your Spirit of love
Please wash me anew
With the wine of Your Blood
YouTube of Keith singing this song
You can be twenty years old and have an old heart. Being in love with Jesus, keeping it fresh and eager every morning to learn what God has given you to do that day, is easily lost. A memorable line from the movie “Parenthood” is when Steve Martin, in a moment of frustration, says, “My whole life is ‘have to’s.” So, for three minutes today, lay down your burden and allow me to encourage you in the Lord.
Just because the Bible contains words that were first penned two thousand years ago, and more, does not mean that God’s promises are no longer effective. Those prescriptions have no use-by date. Actually, those promises came from the eternal, one true God. From God’s perspective, His promises were just given; they were written just a moment ago, and they contain all the strength and potency God intended, and they are for you if you are in Jesus.
You may say, “I prayed for my beloved mother, a God-fearing woman, yet she still died too soon.” Do you think that since her passing she has ever had one regret for leaving this wretched world and being forever in the presence of the Lord?
You might say, “I have prayed and sought Jesus to bring my local church back to the way it was when I was young.” I’m with you on that one, but we serve “I AM.” God works in the now, and He is moving us and the world in preparation for the return of Jesus. We can love what we have, but as servants of God, we must keep up with Him. He has an agenda, and in His love and grace, He has included you. We celebrate what God did, but we work in what God is doing.
Does your heart feel old? Do you feel like your life is not the one you saw when you were first saved? Do you feel like your life is all “have to’s?” Then I recommend what Keith Green wrote. I pray that you allow the Holy Spirit, who is already alive within you, to pour fresh oil and wine upon you. The oil is the Spirit of God, and the wine represents the sacrificed blood of Jesus.
Your first love, when you were saved, is not lost in the past. It is right beside you. It has never left. Ask Jesus for freshness, a soft heart, and a hungry soul. He will give them if you ask in faith.
“Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.”
1 Thessalonians 5:23–24
Eseymour at en.Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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