Promises (II) ( Principles, promises, power and presence IV)

Last day I was saying that there are two kinds of promises. There are the “if – then” promises which I dealt with then, and then there are the unconditional promises. To me the most precious of these latter promises, is “I will never leave you, nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5). But I want to leave that one until I talk about His Presence.

So what are some of the other unconditional promises? Perhaps the one that helped me the most in my early days of being a Christian, is the one in Romans 8:28 which says “ And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” This was particularly helpful for me, because I had messed up so mightily in life. I had so many regrets, so many things I wish I could have changed, but of course you can’t change the past. It was comforting to know that God could even use the garbage of my past for my good. It’s not always obvious how he does this, but sometimes He shows us. In this particular case, I could see that without my past mistakes I would likely not have found Him and His incredible healing love.

At a time of incredible emotional pain, the Lord woke me from my sleep one time and brought Psalm 30:5b to my attention “Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning.” When he does things like this, such verses come alive. It’s hard to describe it if you never experienced it, but you somehow know that God is speaking to you through such a verse, and because you trust Him, because you know that God is not a man that he should lie (Numbers 23:19), you know it’s true, and it somehow strengthens you and enables you to carry on.

Another such promise that came alive to me at a time when decisions we were making were deeply affecting the family, the Lord brought Isaiah 54:13 to my attention. It says “All your children shall be taught by the LORD, And great shall be the peace of your children.” Again, because I trust Him, this verse and others like it brought me into peace.

At the same time, and not for the first time, the Lord was assuring me that He has plans for me, plans for good and not for evil, to give me a future and a hope (Jeremiah 29:11). I had also been experiencing an almost debilitating shame, and He whispered through His Word “Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed; Neither be disgraced, for you will not be put to shame; For you will forget the shame ….” (Isaiah 54:4). This is some time ago now, and the nakedness of my shame at that time has all but gone.

The apostle Peter says of the promises of the Word of God that they are exceedingly great and precious (2 Peter 1:4), and essentially that through then we can enter into the fullness of life that Christ promised us (John 10:10b). Several years ago now, I started a file on my computer entitled “Promises.” And when I find myself feeling down, distressed or discouraged, I open the file and read again some the promises He has underlined for me in this way. It’s 14 pages long! I just opened it to see how long it is, and as I did so, another promise from Isaiah 54 jumped out at me. It is part of verse 17 which says “No weapon formed against you shall prosper, And every tongue which rises against you in judgment You shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD…. “ These and many, many other promises bring me hope and peace and strength and joy.

Father, I thank You this morning for Your exceedingly great and precious promises. I thank You for the one I will unpack later that You will never leave me, nor forsake me. Thank You Lord I am finally starting to enter into life in all its fullness. And I give You all the honour and all the glory and all the praise in Jesus Name Amen