One of the most critical elements of the Heart of a Champion is to be aware of the promised God has given us and staying fully committed to him through everything. Paul shows just how solid both of those are in 2 Corinthians 6 and 7.
In 2 Corinthians 6:16-18, Paul shows the Corinthian church that God desired to make his people his temple, instead of the Old Testament structure that was in use for so long.
What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said,
“I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them,
and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.
Therefore go out from their midst,
and be separate from them, says the Lord,
and touch no unclean thing;
then I will welcome you,
and I will be a father to you,
and you shall be sons and daughters to me,
says the Lord Almighty.”
God had promised to make his dwelling among us, and to live in us, and to restore us to a right relationship with him. Paul understood this, and he knew that it applied to his own life, as well as the lives of every other believer who put their faith in Jesus Christ. That includes you and me.
Throughout Scripture, God has made several promises to his people that we need to step up and believe. All to often, our belief is timid or half-hearted and weak. But some of these promises… We need to claim them and live by them.
I am not proposing some sort of “name it, claim it” theology here. In this case, God has already named it for us; all we need to do it live by it. That’s where our part of this equation come in. In these verses, we can see easily what God has done, and is continuing to do. But what exactly is our part?
Paul tells us plainly in the very next verse. The problem is that it falls in the next chapter, and due to the sometimes disjointed nature of the chapter divisions, we don’t connect passage together that should be together. Look at 2 Corinthians 7:1:
Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.
This is the act of consecration. This is the process of making sure we are fully committed, completely setting aside our entire lives for the sake of God. He has promised to live with in us; we need to make sure that the dwelling is pure and clean for him to reside in. We have to be fully committed.
That’s what gives Paul the Heart of a Champion. He knew the promises of God, and he made sure that he was living the best he could so that God could live in and work through him.
So should we.
Question: What promises do you find in Scripture that really stand out to you? What do you need to do in your life to make sure that you receive the blessings of those promises? You can leave a comment by clicking here.