Puntuation Education

Being a kindergarten teacher, one of the things we work on during the year is the identification of punctuation and when to use each mark. Kids love playing punctuation games, but the application of this process is always a little hazy. Every year they always seem to have a difficult time knowing when to use a period and when to use a question mark.

For us, non-kindergarten students, knowing which punctuation mark to use at the end of a sentence is pretty easy.

But, I think that, in life, sometimes we need some punctuation education ourselves.

Through the Word, we have each been given promises. Other times God speaks personally to us and gives us a promise that is only meant for our own heart. Promises that we are meant to stand on, believe in, and put our faith behind. Obviously, the punctuation mark at the end of a promise, is a period. It is a statement.

Then why are we so often willing to let the enemy put a question mark where God has put a period?

God says...

"The Lord is faithful to his covenant promises and delivers his people through his powerful right hand."Exodus 14:15

“My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest” Exodus 33:14

"The Lord your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes, and in the desert.” Deuteronomy 1:30-31

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you, and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11

“I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted” Job 42:2

"Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart” Psalm 37:4

“Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall” Psalm 55:22

"The Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He holds victory in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones” Proverbs 2:6-8

In Matthew 4 Jesus goes into the desert for 40 days to prepare himself for the beginning of his public ministry. In those 40 days he goes througha period of temptation. In every temptation Satan throws at Jesus, he is doing what he so often does to us on a daily basis; he puts a question mark where God has put a period.

Jesus examples how we are to fight off the temptation to question the promises of God. You see this is called the temptation of Christ because he was tempted by each one of these things. But how did he fight back? With a might sword...scripture. He chose to repeat back the promises of God to Satan, because truth is always truth and never ends in a question mark. He replaced the temptation to believe the lies with truth.

Don't allow the enemy to put a question mark where God has put a period.