Thought for the Day

Learning to claim God's Word is important. Confessing it aloud helps us to remember it. It also builds our faith and helps us to hold on to God's promises when it is a real battle to do so. We must confess what God's Word says about our circumstances and ourselves, not what the world or our fears may tell us. Speaking God's Word causes the rest of our words to begin to line up with it. We should confess the Word over our problems, instead of confessing only our problems. When feeling discouraged or doubtful, we must continue to confess in faith what the Bible says about us or our situations.

We must, however, be careful to have a Biblical (and not merely a positive) confession. A Biblical confession speaks God's Word back to Him, while a positive confession is simply speaking what one wants to hear and is directed primarily toward self-interest. We honor God by lining up what we think and say with His truth and trusting Him to provide our needs because we know He is good. Our aim must never be to try to manipulate God into doing what we want. Some so-called "confession teachers" say we should never speak anything negative; we should never say that we have an illness or a problem. This is not what the Bible teaches. We can certainly state the facts, but we should always resolve to speak the greater facts of God's Word over them. Faith-filled words invite the Holy Spirit into the problem. For example, in telling people that you are under an attack of illness, it would be wise to phrase it like this: "My doctor says I have (name the disease or condition), but I believe that God is my Healer and therefore I am claiming the Scripture that says, "...by the stripes of Jesus I am healed" (1 Peter 2:24b). Would you agree with me in prayer for healing?" The Bible contains many promises that we may claim. If we do not know what God says about a problem, we need only open the Bible and research the subject to learn what God has promised to do for us in each particular circumstance.

Abraham is a wonderful example of believing God's promises and acting in faith. God promised Abraham that his descendents would be exceedingly numerous. Although Abraham knew he was too old to father children, he "...staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform" (Romans 4:20-21).