Discovering God’s Forgotten Gifts Right Under Our Noses

What’s THe Most Important Thing You Have Ever Lost?

We’ve all lost our keys or our cell phone and rummaged through all our pockets looking for them. We can’t find them, so we look again. Perhaps we go back into our closets, or into our dressers, or even into the dirty clothes, thinking they must be in the clothes I wore yesterday. 

Finally, we dig deeper and find that they were there all along – in one of the first pockets we had checked but hadn’t reached all the way down where the keys were in the first place. Now imagine if this were your wedding ring, or something of incredible worth. What a relief to know you finally found it and it is now in your possession! 

There’s nothing like the feeling of finding something of great value, which is desperately needed. Whether it’s lost momentarily, or for a longer time when a great search took place, it just feels good when we look in the right place, and the puzzle is solved. Many times, that precious item was there all along – right under our noses. Whatever the case, being lost and coming out of it, or losing something needed and finding it produces a feeling that is both a relief and an exhilaration that feels really great. 

What if you had lost your wedding ring, and you hadn’t realized it yet? There would be no change in your emotional state. No energy consumed by anxiety, nothing but the status quo concerning your behavior. On a personal level, I’ve gotten turned around in the woods, not realizing I was lost, enjoying tracking an elk in the darkest of timber. When emerging into a large meadow, and only realized then that I was lost. The same exercise ensues. A mental backtrack to where I’ve been, and an effort to get unlost as soon as I can get my mind engaged to solve the problem.  

It’s not a great feeling to be lost or to lose something valuable, and it’s a wonderful feeling to be fully restored.

I believe some of life’s most valuable and precious gifts often get lost and need to be found, and they are undoubtedly right under our noses. We just need to know which pocket to look in, or perhaps it is we ourselves that need to be redirected. Should we consider taking inventory and measuring some of the most valuable gifts we could be enjoying, which are within reach, but we rarely reach for them? I think so.

One such gift that is right under our noses, which are rarely thought of, are specific promises God has made to us. Peter says they are extremely valuable, yet most of us are unaware of these treasures. Here it is: “He has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature.” (I Peter 2: 4)

These promises are something extremely special, and meant for our welfare – yet we don’t even consider them. We don’t look for them. We tend to be oblivious toward them, and yet they hold the key to a quality of life now and throughout eternity that tells me we really need to reach out and find them. 

Have you considered that God has made promises to you and me that have been there all along right under our noses, and there’s a good chance we are oblivious to them? More importantly, these promises are true and unchangeable, and pledged by our very own creator. You see, we have many pockets to reach into in search of valuables. For this short essay, I’ll call them pockets of promises.

Pockets Of Promises

I hope you read through this list of promises, and specifically I hope you will receive a broader and deeper understanding of the offering which the Almighty has brought to us since the beginning of time. I’ve listed just a few examples here.

For example, here’s 25 or so of God’s very special promises:

• I will carry your burdens – Psalm 84
• I give you peace, and my peace will guard you – Philippians 4:7
• I guard you against temptation – 1 Corinthians 10:13
• I am preparing a place for you to be with me, that where I am, you may be also – John 14:3
• Ask, and I will give. Seek, and you will find. Knock and the door will open to you. – Matthew 7: 7-8
• I am for you – Romans 8:31
• I call you my children – Romans 5:6
• I have adopted you – Romans 8
• I am your personal shepherd, and I will lay down my life for you – John 10
• I give you wisdom – James 1
• I will strengthen you – Isaiah 45
• I will comfort you so you may comfort others – 2 Corinthians 1:3,4
• I give you instruction and counsel; I will teach you – Psalm 32:8
• I will heal and pardon you, therefore, forget none of my benefits! – Psalm 103
• I alone can lift you up – Psalm 75: 7
• I promise that you will be strong and bear fruit in your old age – Psalm 92:12
• I will be your shield. No good thing will I withhold from you – Psalm 84 
• I give you guidance into truth – John 16
• I will never leave you or forsake you, a continued presence – Hebrews 13:5
• I am faithful and just to forgive you – 1 John 5:9
• I will give you my Spirit as an advocate – John 16
• I will supply your daily needs, what you eat, drink, and your clothes – Matthew 6
• I will let nothing separate you from my love – Romans 8:35
• I will answer your prayers – 1 John 5:14
• I am your very present help in times of trouble – Psalm 46:1

God’s Wealth

You need to know how wealthy you are based on the promises of God. And you need to cash in on the wealth given to you by these promises. If you measure wealth by the house you live in or your bank account, or by comparing material things to those around you, you are poor by God’s standards. The richness and fullness of life, which provide ultimate satisfaction, is found in God’s promises, which are listed in part here. If you tie your identity only to ideologies, social groups, or material wealth, you are missing out on the fullness of life that God has intended for you. You could be lost and not even know it. 

The message here is to simply take advantage of God’s brand of wealth by claiming these promises and cashing in on them. If we don’t acknowledge God and his plan for us, there is no way to claim His promises as our own and begin to fully realize his blessings.

Why my friends don’t take just a fraction of time to reach into any one of these pockets confounds me, and I find myself writing about this often. This issue is often present as I consider social and behavioral issues and what consumes man’s desire to belong to a tribe. That tribe could be a political ideology. A church group. A social tribe such as a work group, a country club group, or a community service group. It seems that most of us have a desire to belong to and engage with people in a broader context. This is a good thing if your tribe isn’t holding you back. We really do need each other, and are made to be in fellowship with each other, as well as our Creator.

What would it be like to be wealthy and not act like it? To behave like a pauper. A person like that would garner the eye of others who found it hard to watch someone well-endowed pretend he or she is living in poverty. 

“Why live in poverty when we can enjoy what a very sovereign God directs in a very personal way into the very center of our life?  His promises, His benefits, His blessings.”

The truth is, we are wealthy but rarely behave like we have the slightest idea of the wealth God has bestowed on us. 

God’s Promises

Is the problem with God, or is the problem that I don’t understand what he is offering me? We need to open the treasure chest of God’s promises and claim them as our own. Why live in poverty when we can enjoy what a very sovereign God directs in a very personal way into the very center of our life – His promises, His benefits, His blessings. All meant just for you and me, yet often squandered for lack of interest or knowledge. A rejection of the most precious Gift and gifts our Heavenly Father bestows on us. 

“See what kind of love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” I John 3:1

Another way to say it is that we in fact could be lost and not even know it. We go through life’s motions, rarely and perhaps never claiming a single one of God’s promises. And why? I think folks think they are going to have to give up something and, in fact, have everything to gain. We hold on to a mediocre or comfortable existence, settling for less because we don’t know any better. We forgo God’s best plans and advocacy for us because we just won’t reach into our pockets full of God’s promises, and the incredible advantage Christ offers us. 

Let’s be honest. We can be stubborn. We can get very comfortable in our lost state because, by human standards, we’re not lost at all. 

There is one common condition that is tied to all of God’s promises, and I would be remiss to conveniently sidestep it here. If you were to read all the verses listed here in this short list of God’s promises, a theme would emerge. This condition is simply that we believe and identify with Christ, as he adopts us into his family. No perfection required. Simply an acknowledgement that Christ is who He says He is. A simple belief and step of faith initiates the flow of blessings too numerous to count, and an experience like no other. 

I am hoping today that this simple focus on God’s advocacy on our behalf and his love evidenced by these 25 promises will move you to a closer walk with your Creator. I’ve never met a person who said I believe that Christ is the Son of God who had a regret. Rather, I’ve seen many, many who have reveled in a new confidence and experience of God’s love for them. A daily growth, produced by simple faith. It feels good to claim these promises and cash in on the love that God is lavishing on those who are called His children.

Let’s open the treasure chest that sits before us and realize the full benefit of the gifts that have been offered to us. Remember – no one else can provide wisdom and understanding, strength and a place of refuge, comfort and peace, or forgiveness, guidance, and help when you’re in trouble. Only God can do that, and He will. It’s a matter of trust.