When we consider the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New, it might at first seem like we’re dealing with two different Gods. God didn’t suddenly become kinder between the Old and New Testaments. God has always been merciful, forgiving, and loving. So, if God has always been merciful and hasn’t changed, what has changed?
The change lies in the way we relate to God.
When we consider the New Covenant and the new creation Christ has made us, the way we relate to God must also change. We can only understand God as our Father through the New Covenant, which fulfills and gives life to the Old. Some people compare themselves to Job. Jesus didn’t say, “if you have seen Job, you have seen the Father.” He said, “if you have seen Me, you have seen the Father.”
Jesus came so we might see Him, and in seeing Him, see the Father. He opens us to see beyond what we perceive naturally. Jesus is the author of abundant life. The devil brings everything that steals, kills, and destroys. When you open your heart to a God who is greater, kinder, loving, more concerned for you than you could ever have imagined, you begin to expect His goodness in your life.
Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? (Matthew 6:30, NKJV)
If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! (Matthew 7:11, NKJV)
If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him! (Luke 11:13, NKJV)
Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse nor barn; and God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds? (Luke 12:24, NKJV)
Since we have been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from wrath through Him? (Romans 5:9, NIV)
For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! (Romans 5:10, NIV)
But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! (Romans 5:15, NIV)
For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ! (Romans 5:17, NIV)
The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more. (Romans 5:20, NIV).
If the old way, which brings condemnation, was glorious, how much more glorious is the new way, which makes us right with God! (2 Corinthians 3:9, NLT)
So if the old way, which has been replaced, was glorious, how much more glorious is the new, which remains forever! (2 Corinthians 3:11, NLT)
By so much more Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant. (Hebrews 7:22, NKJV)
Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God. (Hebrews 9:14, NLT).
Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us (Ephesians 3:20, NKJV).
Our Father is a God of so much more than our limited natural minds can imagine. Yes, we live in a fallen world and will face persecution, but these challenges don’t prevent the Holy Spirit from promising us an exceedingly abundant life! We must see beyond what we perceive as limitations.
God’s heart is for His children to experience His beloved Son working and overflowing “bountifully” in their lives! It is the Word that produces in us; we don’t produce the Word! Do you “hear” the Father's promises in your heart? Meditate on His promises, and sow them in your heart, expecting them to come true.
And the seed that fell on good soil represents those who hear and accept God’s word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted! (Mark 4:20, NLT).
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