Good news for Christians! When the Word says ‘we’, this means it includes ME! This is also true of when the word ‘you’ is used. Can you wrap your head around all that this means? This is fantastic… but it also comes with our, as in Our, responsibilities – not just benefits! It comes with knowledge, understanding, growth, applications, etc. Yes, this typically means we have to do something, like believe, in order to see the blessings. But they are there.
Example: Hebrews chapter 11. Each sentence begins with: “By faith…” and then proceeds to relate the example of someone who lived by faith but didn’t see the fruit of the faith, but believed. Then we read verse 6 (followed by other examples of those who lived by faith and how God saw this:
“But without faith it is impossible to [walk with God and] please Him, for whoever comes [near] to God must [necessarily] believe that God exists and that He rewards those who [earnestly and diligently] seek Him.”
The evidences from those who did not abandon their faith but stood fast even though they didn’t see (tangibly) their reward should inspire us. I would also suggest that faith is our starting point in our process of discovering everything associated with believing, responsibilities, and rewards the ‘We means Me’ involves. It also helps us build our relationship with the Lord.
Did you realize that there are over 160 promises indicated in scripture that God has for us. 160! Personally I tend to believe that all promises come with requirement(s), but doable or we wouldn’t be asked. A study by Victor Knowles:
“The word promise appears more than 100 times in sacred scripture. One thousand promises are listed in “What the Bible Says about Praise and Promise”. Thousands more are listed in Samuel Clarke’s two-hundred-year- old classic, “Precious Bible Promises”. Some have suggested that there may be as many as 30,000 promises contained in Scripture.”
I’m not so certain the number of promises there are is as important as the ones YOU know and are standing on for yourself or those people and things you pray for. There are untold numbers of promises, blessings that are available for the ‘We’ but it really is the ‘Me’ who implements them that makes any difference.
The point that I was attempting to make is that WE is ME just like ME is WE. What’s in the Word tells us all that is ours when we make Jesus our Lord and all that we can do and be because Jesus is our Lord. He explicitly prays for His, that though we are in the world, we are not of the world – 2 little letters that make all the difference. The Lord does come to equip and enable us, He comes to protect and provide, He comes to give us our personal assignments, and He comes to warn us of our enemy and what he attempts to do – but that the enemy is defeated (and knows it) and we can overcome.
