Standing on the Promises

Russell Kelso Carter, a pastor and later a medical doctor, wrote that old familiar hymn,  “Standing on the Promises of God.” It was first published in 1886.  Carter spoke in his hymn of the certainty of God’s promises.  So, humming the melody, I began to think about what promises are.

Promises, of course, are a sort of contract, a commitment.  Sometimes they’re unconditional.   God promised never to destroy the earth with a flood in Genesis 9:11.  Sometimes they are conditional.  In 2 Chronicles, God promises, “If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from Heaven and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

There are warning promises (Ps. 9:17), saving promises (Rom. 10:13), motivating promises (2 Cor. 7:1), There are guiding promises (Ps. 32:8), Comforting promises (Ps. 55:22), uplifting promises (2 Cor. 12:9), and hopeful promises (Rom. 8:28).  All in all, there are well over 3500 promises in the Bible.  There are so many, people have filled books with just some of God’s promises.

“These are all great, but how do we claim all these promises,” you might ask?  We claim them through faith:  “But without faith, it is impossible to please him, for he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him” (Heb. 11:6).

And where does this faith come from?  “So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17).

The hardest thing about God’s promises is sometimes they take time to fulfill.  Patience is not a common trait among humans.  We don’t like waiting for our rewards.  When I was a kid, I’d order those toys off the back of cereal boxes and expect them to arrive in the next day’s mail.  The anticipation grew, but patience dwindled.  I was so excited when the toy actually arrived, though.

I don’t know if you’ve ever asked God for patience.  I have, and it was murder.  Nothing arrived on time, God was trying to teach me to be patient, but I didn’t learn much except to never again pray for patience.

God fulfills His promises.  I’ve waited sometimes for years to see people come to Christ, but they came.  I’ve seen people healed, money appear suddenly just in time for someone in desperate need, jobs found, couples married, children born.  I suppose then that “wait upon the Lord” is a good idea. (Ps. 27:14)

Some of my favorite promises are these:

Jer. 33:3 “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and mighty things which you do not know.”

John 1:12 “But to as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become the children of God, to those who believe in His name.

My wife’s favorite is Matt 28:20b “….. and ‘lo I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

The central verse of the entire Bible is a promise, John 3:16:

John 3:16 (NKJV)
¹⁶  For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

The Bible is filled with literally thousands of promises God has made to us.  What’s your favorite?