Happy New year to all !! By this time, we would have attended church and read many of the promise for 2022, listened to many sermons for 2022, read many what’s app forwards on many promises from friends and relatives. So not sure what holds true for your 2022 promise. Whatever be it, meditate and receive the promise from God.
God did speak to me on the promise for 2022, in this blog I have written down what his guidance for this year will be and what are the keys for us to unlock this promise.
This New Year 2022, the promise verse come from Prophet Jeremiah 29
'For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord , “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. ' Jeremiah 29:11
God’s Promise for 2022 – 3 Parts to the promise
1. Prosperity Plan: We humans have many desires and plans for our lives, many we share to others, some kept in secret inside our heart. Desires give shape to a plan, plan shape to action to turn to a blessing. God knows our human desires, even the desires that we can think in our heart can turn to prosperity plan 'For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord , “plans to prosper you”.
So, if we must prosper, we must walk with what our Lord’s plan is, many times the desires of our human flesh overrides God’s plan and we fail with our human plan. When we walk with Jesus, our plans will be guided by God’s plan thru the spirit of God and God’s spirit will search our human desires and discern things that’s right from God’s eyes and remove that’s not God’s plan, Paul describes on this, and David explains well in Psalms
Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. Romans 8:5 NIV
'Take delight in the Lord , and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord ; trust in him and he will do this: ' Psalms 37:4-5
2. Protection Plan: We live in a world filled with so many uncertainties, One side we are challenged by Virus - we see Corona in waves (we are already in Wave 3, we have moved from COVID to OMINCRON), Other Side - sudden pattern of extreme Rains / extreme heat, Economic uncertainty across the world with so many factors turning this to be a ripple effect, God’s promise to us this year is ““plans to prosper you and not to harm you”
So, if we need to have God’s protection, we need to be righteous in the eyes of God. God will provide a hedge on his chosen (righteous people) and no harm can come near his children. We read this experience with God doing this with Job.
'“Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. ' Job 1:9-10
So, if we are righteous in God’s eyes like how Job was, God will surely be true to his promise to give us the protection plan that he promises for us.
3. Hope & Future: The promise from God is “plans to give you hope and a future” what does this Hope mean? Webber dictionary meaning of Hope is “Hope is the desire to - to cherish a desire with anticipation : to want something to happen or be true”, but in Spiritual sense Hope translates to Faith in God. Hebrews outlines the definition of Faith
'Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. 'Hebrews 11:1
The promise from God is, God will give us the faith to lean on him and in that faith, he will shape our future. What awesome promise that is, we can never predict how our future would be, but God gives a promise he will shape our future by making us trust on him that he will give us a better and good future.
Keys to Promise
Whatever be your 2022 promise, there are keys to unlocking God’s promise. God does not give the whole blueprint and asks us to walk by our human desires, in contrary, he wants to show us the promise in small steps as we walk with him daily. The keys hold on how close we walk with Jesus. Jeremiah outlines the keys to this promise Verses 12-14
'Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord , “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord , “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.” 'Jeremiah 29:12-14
1. Call on Me: The first key for us is prayer - 'Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you” This is a clear message for us to “Call on me and come and pray” to Jesus every day, we cannot just call only when we have trouble, we cannot treat God like a hotline or help desk to see guidance when we have issues. God will be true to his promise only if we pray every day, God says call on me if you have troubled day or joyful day, he wants to be intimate with us every day, he wants to know what inner things of our life that no one else knows.
He is a God who listens to our prayers, the more we ask / seek his presence he will guide us to the right paths according to his plans.
' “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. ' Matthew 7:7-8
2. Seeking God with All your Heart: The second key to unlocking the promise is to Seek God with our heart
You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,
let’s say if you want to visit a new place where you have not been, how do you go to that place? you seek to find the place by asking / searching / by finding help from someone who knows the place so that you can go to that place with little difficulty.
Similarly Seeking God, is to reading God’s word “The Bible”, you need to read it with a urge what God is talking to you daily. Remember he has promised you a plan to prosper you / guard you and shape your future, The Bible has the keys to guide and shape what we need to do today that will be a seed for us tomorrow. Say if you are seeking a new Job this year, as you pray and read the word of God, he will give you the promise on the time to switch job, which job to pick and which one to let go. He will lead you every step. Unless you read the word, you will not know what he is talking to you.
Reading Bible cannot be a New Year resolution, it must be daily activity like how we brush your teeth and eat food when you are hungry. Unfortunately, many of us make reading Bible a new year resolution and fail by giving lame excuses on how reading Bible is missed. Satan is a devouring lion and does not want us to read the Bible, so he will give you distractions of everyday life to make you fail. Have the will / perseverance to read the word of God, seek God’s help for you to read every single day. he will help you. If you are busy with work, wake 30 or 45 min early to pray and meditate, God will value these actions.
Similarly, don’t read Bible for the sake of reading, don’t just read one chapter as that’s what the pastor has told you to do or read 1 Verse on your way to work or read a what’s app forward and say I finished reading Bible. Seeking God means you devote time to God, honoring God first, Seek him 1st thing in morning. Go to a quiet place, read the Bible slowly and meditate on this, ask God what is he trying to tell you, what does this word mean to you or what does it mean to the situation you are into? Ask and challenge God? The spirit of God will guide you and speak to you.
'For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 'Hebrews 4:12
Remember God is always true to his promise, we loose the keys to his promise and blame God that he has not been faithful to us on his promise. God’s word says he keeps his promise for 1000 Generations. It’s our human mistakes than makes us fail on his promises because we are quite busy with the world prorates and forget the keys for his promise, we need everything immediate and want to know all in one go. We don’t have the patience to get the direction from him every day.
'He remembers his covenant forever, the promise he made, for a thousand generations, ' 1 Chronicles 16:15
He is a faithful God. Trust in him to lead by his promises this year 2022. Actions we need to inherit the promise is simple “Walk with Jesus Daily by seeking / praying to God”
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