“For all of God’s promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding “Yes!” And through Christ, our “Amen” (which means “Yes”) ascends to God for his glory.”
2 Corinthians 1:20 (NLT)
Our God is a “Yes” God. He answers EVERY prayer, but not always in the way we think He should or expect Him to. Praying doesn’t always change our circumstances, but it changes us. Sometimes we wait tirelessly for our situation to change:
When am I going to get a better job with better pay?
When will I have a healthier marriage?
When will God take away the stronghold in my life that prevents me from having the relationship with Him I desire to have?
I don’t have an answer to those questions, but I know someone who has ALL of the answers. JESUS.
Through Jesus we get our “yes” from God. This is not a YES as in “you will get everything you ask for”, but a YES as in He will always do what He says. Jesus proves that God’s promises are true.
And through Christ, our “Amen” (which means “Yes”) ascends to God for his glory.
Whoa! Can we talk about what AMEN means just for a minute? I don’t know about you, but I have been saying “Amen” at the end of my prayers since I was a little girl.
Amen literally means “so be it”. It can also be translated to also mean firm, steady and trustworthy. When we say “Amen” at the end of prayers, it is not just a meaningless send off. Instead, saying “Amen” at the end of a prayer is meaning-filled promise. It seals the gift God gave us through His son Jesus. We use it at the end of prayers and to show that we agree with what we prayed.. We are sure that God will answer them. In this way, we give glory to God.
For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Matthew 7:8
“In Jesus name, Amen” means that because God sent Jesus to rescue and redeem us, we know that God is faithful, and we give Him glory.
Friends, next time you are nearing the end of a prayer, and right before you say “Amen”, stop and think about what it means. YES GOD, you are trustworthy. YES GOD, you are faithful. YES GOD, through Jesus, we have the answer.
Many Blessings,
Stephanie
Photo Credit: image created via wordswag
I like to listen to the radio. I usually rotate between a few stations that play Christian music, so hearing the same song more than once a day is inevitable. Occasionally, I turn on the radio and “Good Good Father” is playing for the seventh time. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some Chris Tomlin, but sometimes I get tired of hearing it and will change the station hoping to hear a new song.
Luke, chapter eight, gives the account of a woman who’d been afflicted for twelve years with non-stop bleeding. In that day, she was considered “unclean”—someone nobody wanted to come in contact with. As such, she was likely an outcast, not connected in her community, and unable to find a cure for her bleeding. One day, while Jesus was passing through a town, she made her way through the crowd of people in an effort to get close enough to touch Him. She reached His clothing and touched the edge of His robe. Right then, she stopped bleeding. Jesus wanted to know who touched Him. Everyone around Him said they didn’t do it. The apostle Peter told Jesus the entire crowd was pressing on Him because so many people were there.