This is no ordinary encouragement....this is God's encouragement.....

The assurance of God's promises. Hebrews 6:13-18 Genesis 22:18

Monday May 24th, and, despite the weather, summer is quickly approaching, as is the completion of a significant portion of the covid-19 vaccination plan – Do the vaccines protect against the new variants? We’re not sure... but we certainly hope so!

The death toll has been higher than expected, the consequences will be long-lasting for some, and the anguish of those who had to wait while their loved ones were in the hospital, unable to receive visitors, was almost unbearable.

Then there's whatever is going on in our own lives, whatever bad news we have received, whatever adversities we're currently confronted with.

We finished 2020 jaded, and to be honest, not much has changed for many of us; we haven't all weathered lock-down well.

We always expect the following year to be better than the previous one, that it will be different, that it will be better, that the thing we feared will not manifest... but it occasionally appears to rear its ugly little head again. Every morning, when we open the newspapers, we are forewarned of an impending disaster.

One of the worst feelings we can have at the end of the day, whether we accomplished a lot or a little, is the realisation that we must do it all over again the next day. Tiredness is not a sin; it occurs when we exhaust our energy reserves and become physically or mentally exhausted... or both.

Well, I'm not going to feed you a bunch of "how-to" or "self-help" lines because they rarely apply to every situation because each of us is unique, and our various issues are often unique.

Last year, I spoke at a ladies' meeting about the benefits of memorising entire chapters of scripture, chapters that contained substantial truths and promises that we could apply to ourselves and stand on as we dealt with our issues.

However, we must not only know those truths and promises, but we must also believe them. We must believe that God is working for us in every situation.

You see, Satan is rarely concerned when we pick up a bible, he is rarely concerned when we read it, he is rarely concerned when we memorise scripture verses, he is rarely concerned when we recite them to ourselves.... but he is certainly concerned when we read those truths and promises correctly, when we understand those truths and promises, when we believe those truths and promises, and when we obey those truths and promises... we frighten him.

I love the concept of a promise, but I sometimes struggle to keep the ones I make on the spur of the moment; these are usually made to justify a purchase I don't need or can't afford, in other words, to get something I want. Like the child who promises to walk and clean up after the puppy if only they could have one... Every one of us has been there!

God, on the other hand, does not make such superficial promises.

As I read through the book of Hebrews this week, I was encouraged by the writer of Hebrews; in chapter 6:13-18, he seeks to renew the reader's confidence in God; he is concerned that having reached a certain level of maturity, they are hesitant to progress any further forward, so he wants to encourage them to trust God. Why does he want to do this, and what does he know that allows him to believe that he can motivate them?

The answer, as the writer discovered in scripture, is found in God Himself.

Just as we discover God's truths as we study His Word, the writer of Hebrews discovered something so encouraging about God as he read the scriptures that, inspired by the Holy Spirit, he recorded it for the sake of his readers' encouragement.

His discovery is that God is concerned with the encouragement of believers; people go through the most horrifying situations in life, and God's encouragement is strong enough to support His people in their most trying situations, strong enough to encourage us to hold on to our hope in Him rather than drift into false hopes that the world wants to offer.

God's desire is to demonstrate to you that you can have strong encouragement; He wants to work this in the hearts of everyone who reads these verses, those who read His Word.

Life can be very difficult at times, and a flimsy hope in God, a rickety Christian hope, may not always appear as real as the hope offered by the world.

God, on the other hand, wants Christians to have hope that will last, that will carry them through the rest of their lives; He does not want them to become sluggish in their faith. Everything that Jesus saves us from and to can appear monotonous at times, and what begins to look good are other things!!.. and this can cause us to see God's truth as faded, but in Hebrews 6 we see God's desire is to encourage us.

Isn't that incredible, and isn't our God incredible? Not only has Jesus saved us from God's wrath and promised us eternal life with Him, but He doesn't just leave us to "get on with it"; it's not a "that's it, I've done my part now, I've done that hard part, you’ll just have to struggle through"; no! Absolutely not. He wants to encourage us, to give us strong encouragement. He demonstrates an amazing commitment to our hope, that we won’t worry or be concerned about how things will turn out, and we desperately need that assurance.

But, in order to provide strong encouragement, you must have something other than words; you must have done something so that people can trust your words. What work has God done to allow us to believe his promises?

In v13 the writer mentions a promise made by God to Abraham (Genesis 22:16)

Here in Genesis, God swore an oath and made a promise. This is what the writer of Hebrews has realised, this is what the writer wants to talk about. This is what the author is most excited about.

When people swear an oath, they usually swear on something greater than themselves; in court, we swear on the bible, and you often hear people say, "I swear on my mother's life." Things like that, we've all heard them, if not in real life, then on TV. It is done so that those listening will realise that we are not lying but speaking the truth.

But what can God swear by?....... by his creation? by the people of Israel? by his angels? These are not greater than God, and He wants us to have the strongest encouragement, so He swore by Himself as if saying, "may God be shamed if I don't bless you," and He gave an oath on the highest possible value, himself; He is saying may God be cursed if he does not bless his people.

What kind of king would do such a thing for his subjects? How many kings want their subjects to be optimistic?

But we have a God, a King, who desires that we be encouraged and hopeful. God cares about our encouragement so much that he goes the extra step to make sure we have plenty of it.

So, who can grasp this powerful, this strong encouragement, anyone?

According to v18 we are told that it is those who have run to God in desperation for help and refuge. This encouragement is to enable us to hold fast, to hold fast to the promises of God, the promises that God will bless us and that he wants us to have the assurance that all His promises will come true for us and that our future is firmly in his hand for our good.

So, if you are looking to Jesus, looking away from sin, if you have run to Jesus, if you are trusting Jesus, then this strong encouragement from God is for you.