“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” Are you familiar with this quote? You will be if you had a good literature teacher like I did. It is from “Sonnets of the Portuguese”, written in 1850 by the famous poet of Victorian England, Elizabeth Barrett Browning. It was written about her famous husband and also poet, Robert Browning, and was beautifully penned to express her undying love for him. I believe that this poem comes from the heart of God who also thinks and says these things about us, his children. The huge difference with God is he actually counts his “ways”. There are over 30,000 promises or ways of God in the Bible to express his love for us. Let us exam them.
The first promise of God comes from John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” This is really “Good News” if you are a “whosoever”. Well, that’s way number one. We have 29,999 more to go.
If you go to Deut. 28 you will find a list of blessings and curses. In Deut. 28:1 it says that if you will “hearken diligently” to the voice of the Lord and do all his commandments, all these blessings will come upon you. Then through verse 13 it lists these blessings. In Deut. 28:15 it says that if you do not do all God’s commandments, all these curses will come upon you. It then lists all the curses until verse 61 which says that every sickness not mentioned in this book will also come upon you; just in case your particular “curse” was not listed.
Are we then under the old testament law? No, we are not, but we are under the law of love. In Mt. 22:37, Jesus, in answer to the question of which is the greatest commandment in the law, said, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul and with all thy mind.” In verse 39 he says that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves and concludes with, verse 40, “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets”
To confirm our redemption from the law, Gal. 3:13 says, “Christ (the anointed one and his anointing) has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us …”
So, when you find your particular “curse” in Deut. 28, just point to Gal. 3:13 and say, “I am not under the curse because Christ (the anointed one and his anointing) has redeemed me from the curse”. Then you can also quote Psalm 107:2 which says, “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so”. All you have to say is “sooooooooo!” and the Lord knows and every demon in hell will know what you are talking about.
How good is God? Just look up all his promises and then you will see how good He is. Stay tuned for the next promise. It’s designed just for you.
Glory to God,
Hal Mitchell
Halmitch@cox.net
