Excerpt from my 31 Day Devotional - "What Did He Say About Me"
“Daily Scripture:
Isaiah 61: 7 AMP
Instead of your [former] shame you shall have a twofold recompense; instead of dishonor and reproach [your people] shall rejoice in their portion. Therefore in their land they shall possess double [what they had forfeited]; everlasting joy shall be theirs.
Daily Devotion:
All promises from God are great! This promise however, is absolutely my favorite!!! My pastor recently preached a sermon on hope. When he used this scripture, he defined the word forfeited. Forfeited means, something surrendered due to an offense or error I’ve made. WOW!
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| Hope is the expectation of good |
I’ve heard great preacher’s say, well if you sin; you better watch it, because God will curse you. Yes, I’ve heard that with my own ears! Now don’t get me wrong I believe strongly in consequences to our actions! When we sin there are consequences. However, it’s not God getting you! God has set up both natural and spiritual laws within the earth. He’s given man (and woman) dominion in the earth, but all humanity is governed by these laws. Jesus became the curse for us, so we don’t walk around cursed by God. However, we choose life or death constantly. Anytime we obey God, we’ve chosen life. Just like anytime we disobey God, then we’ve chosen death. The consequences of sin bring a “death” to our life because we can’t experience God’s fullness while we are in disobedience. It’s not God withholding it from us, it is literally our inability to receive what He’s already given us! Sin causes us to have a heart of stone. When we repent, which simply means to change our minds and choose life, our heart then becomes open to God’s way! However, many times, because we feel guilty and ashamed we still are unable to receive the goodness of God! Yet, when we feel guilt and shame, we are really taking upon ourselves, what Jesus already took upon Himself! We are taking back the curse because we identify ourselves by our deeds! Jesus said right before He died, “it is finished,” yet we keep taking what was finished two thousand years ago, back!
If we’ve truly repented; changed our minds and let God into our weakness, whatever that may be, then what we need to do, is identify ourselves by the deeds of Christ. We simply need to agree with what God says!
As a child I was taught not to take the Lord’s name in vain. This was defined by the words “God, Gosh, Geez, etc.” In fact, if I said “Oh my God,” I was instructed that I was in sin and that I needed to repent! Well, years ago as I was training up my child in the way she should go, the Lord spoke to me one day and challenged me with what that commandment really meant. I was like, well God; this is what I’ve been taught. The Lord then taught me something. God spoke to me and said that what that scripture really meant was that anytime we don’t agree with what He declares, we are taking His name in vain. It made perfect sense to me. In order to see ourselves as God sees us, we need to agree with what He says! So when faced with difficulties, life challenges or decisions we must ask ourselves, what does God say about this?
Well we know that He says instead of our former shame we shall have a twofold recompense. That means we get double the good for the bad!! Many people will challenge that and say well this works only if someone else had taken something from you or has done something bad to you. I believe that, but that’s not the entire promise. I think it’s easy to believe that things will get restored to you if someone else is the cause, however let’s take a look at the word forfeited! Forfeited means something we caused! That means when we’re the common denominator in the mistake, we still will be restored double when we choose to agree with God! Does that not make hope come alive in your heart? Hope is the expectation of good! Expect good when you begin to agree with what God says!
Tammy L. Dahl
Copyright 2006
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