Imagine this scene for a moment, and trust me, it will not be hard:
You are living the American dream, a beautiful family, a four bedroom home, great community, two cars and a recently renovated home. You have a great circle of friends, and you are plugged into some notable clubs and organizations. Your kids attend great schools, and your closet is far from bare. You cut your hair at the best salons and don’t feel the need to clip coupons.
Your nest egg is safe within the vaults of Wall Street, and your future looks exceedingly bright. Sure, you’ve got a few credit accounts that are a bit too high, but who doesn’t these days? After all, you’ve gotten a heads-up from the boss that you are in line for a future promotion.
Then one night you are sitting with your family and a CNN report mentions something about a government bailout of Fannie Mae. This shouldn’t affect me, you think. But two months later, you are sitting at your desk when you get the news…you are being laid off due to an economic slump. Here you are, overqualified for every available job in your field, and in a circumstances spinning out of your control. How could this happen to you?
Suddenly, your monthly household income is hundreds of dollars short of your monthly obligations. You clip coupons and shop at discount stores and consignment sales. You try to cut back on spending, but your daughter needs braces, you get a speeding ticket, and your insurance rates go up. The bills pile up as your nest egg dwindles away to nothing. Then the calls for payment begin coming in. Before you know it, you have hit rock bottom.
Imagine, now, that you get a call from an attorney who asks you to come to his office immediately. He won’t say why, but tells you that the meeting is of utmost importance. With great fear, you grab your coat and board the bus and head downtown.
Nervously, you enter the formal, stark law offices and meet the attorney, a stately man who ushers you into a large conference room and bids you to sit down at a long mahogany conference table. Your heart beats as you wonder what bombshell he will drop on your life next. Is a creditor suing you? Inside your head, a finger pushes a button and a nasty string of “what if’s” begins to play.
The attorney sits down adjacent to you and pulls from a slick leather briefcase a strangely thick file. He places the file on the table and opens the manila folder to page one, and looks at you. The blood drains from your face as you wait for his words, fearing a new, unexpected disaster.
The attorney clears his throat, puts on a pair of reading glasses and begins. “It seems my client, a vastly notable gentleman who happens to be a patriarch of yours, has included you in his will.”
“That can’t be!” you exclaim. “I don’t know of any patriarch who would leave me a dime!”
“Oh, yes,” the attorney continues, flipping through the documents in the folder. “I have it all listed here. Many items of incredible value have been given to you.”
“I don’t believe it.” You are skeptical. How can this be?
“Well,” the attorney looks up from the thick folder and adjusts his spectacles, “You can believe it. Everything is signed and verified. It’s all here in writing. I have here a list of hundreds of items for you. All you have to do is accept them.”
You stare at the attorney in disbelief. You are speechless. The attorney pulls out a contract with your name written across the top with the word “BENEFICIARY” beside it.
“This is you, correct?”
“Yes,” you say, staring at your name on the white sheet. “That’s correct. That’s me.”
The attorney begins to read the list. Each gift is priceless. Page by page, gift by gift, he details items of great worth, all bequeathed to you.
Unbelievable. A strange peace falls over you as you realize that your benefactor answered your every need. Nothing is left for you to do but accept the gifts. Accept them and put them to good use.
Does this sound like an implausible story?
You need to know that you do have a benefactor who loves you so much that he has left you a treasure of great worth. That benefactor is God, the great I AM, and those treasures are His promises for His children, written in Scripture and signed by Christ. These promises are included in His sacred Word penned throughout the course of history and divinely inspired by God. For every need you will ever have, God has graciously given a promise.
Here’s something else to know: Jesus guarantees each promise. All we have to do is believe in His authority, accept the promises, and act on them in faith. I am so excited about the incredible power of living within God’s promises that I wrote Autism’s Hidden Blessings, a book that teaches parents how to apply scriptural promises to autism so that they can soar above it to the place God intends for His children.
As Christians, we have an inheritance that we need to know about and depend on, especially in difficult times such as these. We do not have to react to the problems in the world around us when there is a better way. God has given us a treasure of hope to help us right now, right where we are, and no matter how desperate our situation.
In the coming weeks I am going to write follow-up posts about specific promises that we, as children of God, can count on and let you know why it is that we can trust the Great Promise Maker.
Portions of this post are taken from Autism’s Hidden Blessings, Discovering God’s Promises for Autistic Children and Their Families (C) 2009 by Kelly Langston.
Published by Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, MI. Used by permission of the publisher. All rights reserved.