IBS Application for Hebrews 6:17-18

“So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.”

This small section of Scripture does a lot to flesh out the character of God towards His people. This shows us just how much He cares for us. This shows me just how much He cares for me. In reading through this passage as a part of our Joe Focht study sessions, I was shown just how misconstrued my view of His capacity for grace and love has been.

You see, I held the belief that because God had been managing the view I had on where He had been leading me in my walk with Him that He would never show me where this path was taking me in seasons like this. I felt as though God was a crueler master than He is, and that living by faith means never knowing what God has planned. While this may be part of His plan, select passages from Scripture would seem to disagree with the notions that God never reveals His intentions to us and that He wouldn’t show grace in situations like mine, where a significant part of His plan for my growth involves letting me wonder what specifically God has in store.

But God shattered these falsehoods in my heart. And He did it gently; in the past, I would only be moved by utterly painful destruction of that which held me back, so He didn’t hold back with the rebukes and allowing me to see where my sin was taking me. But in this case, He simply showed me that He loved me, and that He wants to bless me. He did this by confirming a number of promises that I have been unsure about since He made them to me.

This is where this passage’s truth comes in. In these verses, the author of Hebrews tells us that God cares so much about us that He goes above and beyond what is necessary for us to have in every respect. It’s already more than we deserve when God makes us promises for anything; it something much greater to know that God also makes oaths to us, and that by the virtue of His immutability He will never break either His oaths nor His promises. In the context that the author is discussing this, an oath in Jewish culture was a big deal, making the fact that one would be made on top of a promise demonstrate the seriousness of the person making both. God is serious about keeping His promises, and as His son, He treats me know differently. He will keep those He’s made to me, and I can take comfort and find rest over this fact, as the author points out at the end of verse 18.


My application for this one will be to try to walk in His promises as best as I can for this season. I will do this by writing down the promises I know that He’s made to me and praying for these each morning for the next three days, that God would give me the comfort I need for my time out in the field to not stress out about these things or worry that they will not come to fruition.

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