This morning, I was studying Ezekiel 34:23-31 – I am teaching a Sunday School lesson on it in a couple of weeks. The lesson title is “God Promised to Be with Us.”
That promise is the biggest source of hope, strength, and encouragement in the whole bible. But the promise doesn’t help you if you don’t believe it!
God’s presence with believers gives us everything we need for a victorious life. In the Ezekiel passage alone, I counted over 23 promises God makes to His people. To name just a few, He promised:
- Peace
- Safety
- Rest
- Deliverance from enemies
- Increase
- Knowledge of Him
- To break the yoke of bondage
- Deliverance from fear
- Deliverance from shame
- Satisfaction from hunger
- Showers of blessing
I think many of us don’t experience the reality of these promises because we prioritize seeking God’s hand rather than God’s face. That is, we only go to God when we are in trouble. We don’t experience the joy of His presence in our daily life – even in the smallest details.
So when trouble hits, we doubt that God is even there.
But he IS there. How do I know? Because He promised He would be! During times of doubt, don’t trust your feelings; trust your faith.
God promised in Ezekiel 34:29 that He would raise up a plant of renown for us. This prophecy was spoken over 500 years before Jesus Christ was even born!
When something is planted, that means it is fixed in place; its roots sink deep. In addition, renown means “The condition of being known or talked about by many people.”
God makes Himself known to us through Jesus. In fact, one of the names that describes him is “Immanuel” which according to Matthew 1:23 is translated “God with us.”
To get to know Jesus at a deeper level, I highly recommend that you start with the book of John in the bible. You will see clearly that all the promises of God are fulfilled in Him. And praise God in every situation because He lives in the praise of His people.
Whether you need rest, courage, strength, or deliverance from food addiction, be assured to know that God is with you and will keep every promise He makes.
Here is my prayer for you today, taken from 2 Peter 1:2-4:
“Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust (2 Peter 1:2-4, New King James Version).”
Be blessed in health, healing, and wholeness,
Kimberly Taylor
Author of the ‘Take Back Your Temple’ program
https://takebackyourtemple.com/program
P.S. What would happen if God’s people “ate” His word as often as we ate food?
I asked myself this question after struggling with emotional eating and food addiction, reaching 240 pounds.
Through the change God made in my heart and mind about food, I dropped from a size 22 to a size 8Â and became inspired to help others break similar bondages to food.
I wrote a book called “God’s Word is Food: The 90-Day Daily Devotional to Release God’s Power for Breaking Strongholds” that will help you get a closer relationship with God by learning to feast on His Word.