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Contending for Your Promise

I Timothy 1:18 - “This charge (command) I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you wage the good warfare.”

            We are a people of promise.  2 Peter 1:4 reveals, “By which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”  The Lord has made His people many wonderful promises.

            In Hebrews 13:5 the Lord promises to never leave nor forsake us.  Philippians 4:19 promises to supply our needs.  In Psalms 91:11 there is a promise of His divine protection. The Apostle Paul wrote these promising words in II Corinthians 4:8-9, “We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.”


            The Scriptures are filled with wonderful promises, but we must contend for those promises. When the children of Israel entered the Promised Land they first had to dispossess the enemy.  One of the first battles was against the city of Jericho. These cities were walled, secure, well defended, and impenetrable without God’s help. They faced giants, better trained and equipped armies, but God gave them His promise to empower then to overcome the enemy and possess what He had promised them as an inheritance.

            I Timothy 1:18 gives practical instruction concerning our prophetic promises.  He encourages the believer to “wage the good warfare.” We wage a good warfare by guarding our thought life.  The enemy will bring confusion and attack our minds with discouraging thoughts.  II Corinthians 10:5 says, “Casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God bringing every thought into captivity to the be obedience of Christ.”


            We guard our thought life by studying and meditating on the Word of God. Revelation 12:11 says, “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.”  We contend for our promises by standing in faith until we see the realization of His promises.

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