Promises to Live By

by James Boice
First
Week of Promises
Sunday: God’s strength
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and His understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak. — Isaiah 40:28-29
Monday: Hope
but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint. — Isaiah 40:31
Tuesday: Faithfulness
I will sing of the Lord s great love forever;
with my mouth I will make Your faithfulness known through all generations.
I will declare that Your love stands firm forever, that You
established Your faithfulness in heaven itself. — Psalm 89:1-2
Wednesday: Salvation
But because of His great love for us, God, Who is rich in mercy, made us alive w
ith Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been
saved. — Ephesians 2:4-5
Thursday: Rest for weariness
Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take M
y yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you
will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.
— Matthew 11:28-30
Friday: Peace
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be
evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in ever
ything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. A
nd the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts
and your minds in Christ Jesus.
— Philippians 4:4-7
Saturday: Praise Him
Praise the Lord, O my soul; All my inmost being, praise His holy name.
Praise the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits. — Psalm 103:1-2

How Do I Claim the Promises of God?

If a young man wants to ask his father for something, he will pattern his reques
t on the nature and the temperament of his father. If the father is ill-tempered
and stingy, the young man will ask for little. He will take care to present his
need in the most winsome and unobjectionable manner. If the father is good-natu
red and generous, the child will present his need openly and with great confiden
ce.
Similarly, our Father in heaven is not harsh, revengeful, or stingy. On the cont
rary, He is loving, gracious, and merciful; and He is anxious to give the very b
est gifts to His children. Jesus told His disciples: "Ask, and it shall be given
you; seek, and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you." (Matt. 7:
7)
But for what shall we ask? How do we know what is God s will for us?
There is only one answer: We may know the will of God by coming to know the Word
of God, and we know the Word of God only as we study it and the Holy Spirit thr
ows His divine light upon its pages.
In his excellent study on prayer, Andrew Murray writes: “The great mistake here
is that God s children do not really believe that it is possible to know God s w
ill. Or if they believe this, they do not take the time and trouble to find it o
ut. What we need is to see clearly in what way it is that the Father leads His w
aiting, teachable child to know that His petition is according to His will. It i
s through God s holy word, taken up and kept in the heart. . . .”
Any Christian can accept as an unchangeable principle the truth that anything th
at contributes to his growth in holiness and the surrender or renewal of his min
d is an aspect of God s will for him and that anything that hinders his growth i
n holiness is not.
A Christian also may claim any of God s promises, for they are certainly God s w
ill for his life and the lives of all others. James 1:5 says, “If any of you lac
k wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth no
t, and it shall be given him.” So if you go to God as a believer in the Lord Jes
us Christ and ask for wisdom, you can be absolutely certain that you are praying
in God s will and that your prayer will be answered. Here is another, "Be anxio
us for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving,
let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth a
ll understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus" (Philip
pians 4:6-7). In other words, God wills that you have peace even in the midst of
life s calamities, and he promises to impart it to you if you will lay your req
uest before Him.
Are you saying, "But, none of these verses covers the little things in life, the
things with which I am wrestling"? Well, let me give you a verse for those. In
Philippians 4:8 we read, "Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, . . . Wha
tever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report; if there be any vir
tue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." The verse means quite s
imply that you are to pursue the best things that life has to offer. If they are
the best things for you, then do them. If not, do something else. Just be sure
that you get your understanding of the will of God from Scripture.
If will do that, then you will be able to pray to God with absolute confidence,
and you can know and rejoice in the fact that your will is being increasingly co
nformed to His. John the evangelist wrote to the believers of his day: "And this
is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask any thing according to H
is will, He heareth us; and if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we kno
w that we have the petitions that we desired of Him" (1 John 5:14-15).
God delights to give good gifts to His children. Hence, if we do not receive the
m, the fault does not lie in God. It lies in our failure to ask things of Him.
I believe that these texts contain the explanation of the weakness and irrelevan
ce of much Christian living and of much contemporary Christianity. Every now and
then a minister is asked by some Christian, "Why is it that I cannot seem to fi
nd victory in the Christian life? Why does the Bible seem difficult to understan
d? Why do I still seem in bondage to some besetting sin? Why am I such a poor wi
tness? Why do the high principles of Christian conduct have such little effect o
n my job and on the affairs of my family?" The answer is that you do not ask God
for these blessings. You do not have because you do not ask.
What do we lack in our own lives and in the Church generally? Is it wisdom to de
al with this sophisticated and godly world, to distinguish good from evil, right
from wrong, to present the claims of Christ intelligibly and with success? If i
t is, then we should ask wisdom of God. Jesus says, "If any of you lack wisdom,
let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it
shall be given him" (James 1:5).
Torrey writes, "Prayer can do everything that God can do, and as God can do anyt
hing, prayer is omnipotent. No one can stand against the man who knows how to pr
ay and who meets all the conditions of prevailing prayer and who really prays."
He adds that this is true because "the Lord God Omnipotent works for him and wor
ks through him." As we do this we know that God sees our needs more than we do a
nd is actually far ahead of us in fulfilling them. In fact, this is one ministry
, perhaps one of the greatest ministries, of the Holy Spirit. Paul writes, "Like
wise, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity; for we know not what we should pray
for as we ought; but the Spirit Himself maketh intercession for us with groanin
gs which cannot be uttered. And He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the
mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to
the will of God" (Romans 8:26-27).
Do you see what this means? It means that God the Holy Spirit not only dwells wi
thin us, hearing what we say and then responding to it. He also takes an initiat
ive in prayer, probing our hearts to see our greatest needs, and then interpreti
ng our prayers in that light to God our heavenly Father. God loves us. He wants
to help us. Thus, He searches us out to see what He can do for us.
When my sisters and I were very young I remember what great difficulty we had in
our home to discover before Christmas or before my father s birthday what we co
uld do for him. I am sure he had obvious needs, but to us at the time it seemed
as if he were the only man in the world who had everything. He liked to fish, bu
t he seemed to have all the equipment he needed for fishing. He liked to hunt, b
ut we could not help him there. We were always at great pains to discover some n
eed that we could fulfill for him. If he would ever drop a hint of some need, we
were then quite delighted if we could respond to the need and give him the thin
g he desired.
In exactly this way we are told that our gracious God and heavenly Father search
es our hearts to see what we need, and then He delights to answer the need out o
f His inexhaustible storehouse of blessings.
Second Week of Promises
Sunday: Strength
He is a shield
for all who take refuge in Him.
For who is God besides the Lord?
And who is the Rock except our God?
It is God who arms me with strength
and makes my way perfect. —Psalm 18:30-32
Monday: Guidance
Good and upright is the Lord;
therefore He instructs sinners in His ways.
He guides the humble in what is right
and teaches them His way.
All the ways of the LORD are loving and faithful
for those who keep the demands of His covenant. —Psalm 25:8-1
Tuesday: Comfort
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall lack nothing.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
He leads me beside quiet waters,
He restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness
for His name s sake.
Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff,
they comfort me. — Psalm 23:1-4
Wednesday: Assurance
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who
have been called according to His purpose. For those God foreknew He also prede
stined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son, that He might be the firstbor
n among many brothers. And those He predestined, He also called; those He called
, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified. —
Romans. 8:28-30
Thursday: Love
As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. Now remain in My love. If you o
bey My commands, you will remain in My love, just as I have remained in His love
. I have told you this so that your joy may be complete. My command is this: lov
e each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one la
y down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command. I
no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know His master’s busine
ss. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from My Fa
ther I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you to go and
bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask
in My name. This is My command: Love each other. —John 15:9-19
Friday: Faithfulness
Your word, O Lord, is eternal;
it stands firm in the heavens.
Your faithfulness continues through all generations;
You established the earth, and it endures. — Psalm. 119:89-90
Saturday: Patience
I am still confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the Lord. — Psalm 27:13-14

How Am I Comforted by the Promises of God?

If you often have opportunity to comfort a child who has hurt himself while play
ing, you will readily understand the motives of the Lord Jesus Christ in this pa
ssage. Imagine that a child has injured himself and that he has come to you for
comfort. The act that he has come to you means much. Your presence is important.
But beyond that there are also several practical things you can do. You can sho
w love. That is, you can kiss the child and hold him in your arms. You can provi
de information, saying, "There, there, now. It is not really too bad. Look, it i
s not bleeding. It is only bruised." Or if it is serious, you can get him to the
hospital. Finally, you can promise that things will be better. You can say, "Le
t s put some cold water on it. After that it will stop hurting. Tomorrow it will
be as good as new." Anyone who has ever comforted a child knows that in its pro
per place each of these three things is valuable and that, at least in many case
s, the promises seem to be the most valuable of all.
In some sense this is what the Lord has been doing with His disciples in the fou
rteenth chapter of John. He had announced that He was departing from them in ord
er to return to the Father, and this had upset them greatly, for He was everythi
ng to them. They were downcast, troubled, yes, even afraid. So He began to comfo
rt them; first, by reassuring them of His love; second, by providing information
; and finally, by giving them some blessed promises. Probably it is the promises
more than anything else that make this chapter such a favorite with Christian p
eople.
What are these promises? There has been the promise that Jesus would prepare a p
lace for is own in heaven and that, having prepared it, He would return again fo
r them. He promised that His departure from them would not mean an end to Christ
ian work. For if they truly believe on Him, they will be able to carry on His wo
rks and, in fact, do even greater works than Jesus has done. He promised that He
would answer prayer. And then, perhaps greatest of all, He told of the Holy Spi
rit whom He would send and who will abide with us forever. In the verses that fo
llow, the verses which are our text, Jesus gives four more promises, all of whic
h relate to His future relationship to the disciples.
The first of these promises is a promise of the coming Resurrection. Jesus says,
"Yet a little while, and the world seeth Me no more; but ye see Me. Because I l
ive, ye shall live also" (John 14:19).
It is not only the resurrection of Jesus that is spoken of, however, for the las
t phrase, "ye shall live also," clearly speaks of their resurrection.
"Death is not the end," He says, "not for Me, not for you. Moreover, you do not
even have to wait until the next life for the promise, for you will begin to ent
er into the reality of that life now." Have you had the experience about which C
hrist was speaking? Do you know that you will live, even as He lives? Do you kno
w that you have been made alive spiritually even now?
The second promise is the promise of certain knowledge of Christ based upon that
double resurrection. It is because Jesus has been raised and because we have be
en given new life that we know Him as being who He is. This is what He means whe
n He says, "At that day ye shall know that I am in My Father" (John 14:20).
The content of this knowledge is that Jesus of Nazareth was God incarnate, that
is, that He was fully divine—everything else flows from this. And the basis of t
his knowledge, without which we do not and cannot know, is this double resurrect
ion. On the one hand, it is based upon Christ s own resurrection. Without this t
here would have been no faith and no knowledge that He was indeed who He claimed
to be.
On the other hand, apart from a corresponding resurrection of spiritually dead m
en to spiritual life, even this great miracle is insufficient for bringing us to
know who Christ is. It is only when God plants His own life within us, thereby
enabling us to understand His truth and respond to Christ, that we truly know Ch
rist and embrace Him joyfully as the ground of our salvation.
The third promise is a particularly important one, for it concerns Christ s cont
inuing revelation of Himself to those who have believed on Him. He says, "He tha
t hath My commandments, and keepeth them, He it is that loveth Me; and he that l
oveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love Him, and will manifest mys
elf to Him" (John 14:21).
This is a step beyond the promise of sure knowledge of who He is. In this case,
the knowledge will be not so much a knowledge about Him, leading to faith, but r
ather a deep knowledge of Him in which the disciple comes to experience the Lord
in the fullest and most personal way.
"But I am a Christian, and yet Jesus is not that real to me," someone says. Yes,
that may be true. But notice that, in the same verse in which Jesus gives the p
romise of a further revelation of Himself, the Lord also gives the conditions up
on which that continuing revelation will be given. The conditions are: 1) the ke
eping of His commandments, and 2) love.
Christ s final promise is the promise of His own personal presence in the Christ
ian through the Holy Spirit. He says, "If a man loves Me, he will keep My words;
and My Father will love Him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with
him" (John 14:23).
This was something entirely new at the time Christ promised it. The idea that th
e Spirit of God would be with God s people was not new. The Holy Spirit was with
Noah in his day. The Spirit was with each of the Hebrew patriarchs. He was with
the people of Israel during the days of their wandering in the wilderness. Davi
d prayed, "Take not thy Holy Spirit from me." In each of these cases the Spirit
of God was with His people. But now Jesus declares that the One who had been wit
h them in the past was, in a much better way, to be in them in the future. Moreo
ver, since He would be in them it is proper to say that the Father and Son would
be in them also.
The presence of the Lord within His people is the glorious distinctive of the pr
esent time. Therefore, in this age we do not need to go to God and ask that the
Spirit be given. He has been given to each of Christ s followers. Rather, it is
for us to recognize His indwelling and then allow Him to have His way with our l
ives.
Here are four great promises:
we will be made alive spiritually and will be raised as Jesus was raised
we will know Him as God
we will receive an increasingly full revelation of Him (if we continue to obey H
im and grow in His love)
He will come to dwell within us by His Holy Spirit.
Some of these promises are more or less automatic; that is, they are the product
of pure grace and are fulfilled in us regardless of our response or obedience.
One promise, the promise of a fuller revelation of Christ, is contingent; it dep
ends upon our obedience and growth in love. What then? Shall we accept the three
promises and neglect the one? Shall we neglect the one that is costly? Or shall
we rather determine to pursue that promise at all costs, knowing that as we do
we will be coming to know that One who is altogether lovely and who out of His g
reat love gave Himself for us? To do anything less would be ingratitude and foll
y. It would be to exchange our spiritual birthright for a mess of worldly pottag
e.

Third Week of
Promises
Sunday: Trust
Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge Him,
and He will make your paths straight. — Proverbs 3:5-6
Monday: Guidance
Show me Your ways, O Lord,
teach me Your paths;
guide me in Your truth and teach me,
for You are God my Savior,
and my hope is in You all day long.
Remember, O Lord, Your great mercy and love,
for they are from of old.
Remember not the sins of my youth
and my rebellious ways;
according to Your love remember me,
for You are good, O Lord. —Psalm 25:4-7
Tuesday: Assurance
I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that yo
u may know that you have eternal life. This is the assurance we have in approach
ing God; that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we k
now that He hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of Him.
— 1 John 5:13-15
Wednesday: Provision
Taste and see that the Lord is good;
blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him.
Fear the Lord, you His saints,
for those who fear Him lack nothing.
The lions may grow weak and hungry,
but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing. — Psalm 34:8-10
Thursday: Peace
I will listen to what God the Lord will say;
He promises peace to His people, His saints —
but let them not return to folly.
Surely His salvation is near those who fear Him,
that His glory may dwell in our land.
Love and faithfulness meet together;
righteousness and peace kiss each other. — Psalm 85:8-10
Friday: Faithfulness
Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my go
spel, for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a crimina
l. But God’s word is not chained. Therefore I endure everything for the sake of
the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with
eternal glory. Here is a trustworthy saying:

If We died with Him, we will also live with Him;

If we endure, we will also reign with Him.
If we disown Him, He will also disown us;
If we are faithless, He will remain faithful,
for He cannot disown Himself. — 2 Timothy 2:8-13
Saturday: Safety
is my light and my salvation—
whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life—
of whom shall I be afraid?
When evil men advance against me
to devour my flesh,
when my enemies and my foes attack me,
they will stumble and fall. — Psalm 27:1-2
 How Can I Live by the
Promises of God?
Have you ever noticed how many things in your life depend on someone s promise?
You enter into business, get married, take a job, buy a piece of property, do th
ousands of other things because of someone s promise. If you are a Christian, yo
u act on the promises of God. Because of His promises you believe that your sins
are forgiven, that you possess eternal life, that God hears and answers prayer,
that God is providing for you now and that He will also provide for you fully i
n the life to come. These promises are found in many verses:
1 John 1:9—"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us
our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness";
John 11:26— "Whoever lives and believes in Me will never die";
John 14:14—"You may ask Me for anything in My name, and I will do it";
John 14:1-3—"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in Me.
In My Father s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you.
I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for
you, I will come back and take you to be with Me that you also may be where I a
m."
These promises touch on every aspect of our lives and are of great importance.
God’s Promise to Abram
Abram was a man who lived by God s promises. His promises were not exactly the s
ame as those we have been given to live by today, but the God who gave them is t
he same and the reason for them is the same. God gives them in order that we mig
ht live by trusting Him.
When we go back to the beginning of Abram s story, we find that Abram was living
by God s promises even then. God came to him with a command, and the command wa
s that Abram was to leave his country, his people and his father s household, an
d go into a new land that God was going to show him. The most noteworthy charact
eristic of those early verses of Genesis 12 is the number of times God says "I w
ill." He says, "I will show you [a land]." That is a promise. Abram was not goin
g to be turned out into the desert to wander and have God forget about him. God
was leading him out of one land but was going to show him another land. God said
, "I will make you into a great nation." God was taking Abram out of one nation
(of which he was already a part) and was going to make him into another, greater
nation. God said, "I will bless you." Abram could not be blessed in the ungodly
environment in which he had been born and brought up, but God was going to crea
te a new environment for him and was going to lead him into a new and blessed wa
y of life. God said, "I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing."
God said, "I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse
." God obviously was going to do a great deal with and for Abram, and Abram bega
n his life with God by believing and stepping out on God s promises.
Another promise occurs several verses farther on. Here Abram has reached the lan
d God was sending him to, and God is making a new promise that concerns the land
itself. God had said, "I will show you [a land]." Now God says, "I will give [y
ou] this land." This means that in addition to the early, general promise of ble
ssing, God is now adding a tangible, earthly pledge of what He is going to do. "
This land to which I ve brought you and which I m showing you is going to be you
rs," God promises. Once again Abram said, "Yes, Sir!" He did not say, "Why this
land? Why not another land?" Or "I want more land than You re giving me." Abram
accepted what God promised, and he dwelt in the land, living by faith in God s p
romises.
But Abram had no children. God had told him that he was going to have a numerous
posterity. They were going to be as numerous as "the dust of the earth" (Genesi
s 13:16). Abram believed that. He expected God to do it. But the years were begi
nning to go by now, and Abram and his wife were still childless.
Abram laid this matter before God. He said, "Lord, why is this happening? What a
re you doing? I don t have any children, and I don t see how Your promises can b
e fulfilled without them." God answered that question and gave Abram a promise h
e lived on for many years.
God’s Answer to Abram
He took him outside and said, “Look at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed
you can count them.” Then He said to him, “So shall your offspring be" (Genesis
15:4-5). God deals with Abram in a very gracious way at this point. It is in a
like gracious manner that He deals with us.
Think what God did as He gave this further revelation of His will and ways to Ab
ram. First, He repeated His promise. Abram had heard God s promise once. If we a
re harsh, we might say, "Abram should have been able to live by what God told hi
m the first time. After all, God should not have had to tell him again. How many
times does the God of all truth have to speak before we believe Him? Once, righ
t? So if God said, "I m going to make you a great nation. I m going to give you
posterity as numerous as the dust of the earth," Abram should have replied, "I l
l live by that. I m not going to ask any questions. God said it, I believe it; t
hat settles it." But Abram still had this problem. He was puzzled. So God, who i
s gracious, does not say, "I m not going to add another word, because I ve alrea
dy told you what you need to know." No, God says it all over again. He said, "No
, no, Abram. What is it I told you? I told you that you re going to have a large
family. You re going to be the father of a great nation."
Has God ever repeated a promise to you? I m sure He has. He taught you something
in the past; but you got into a muddle, and God came and taught this lesson aga
in. You were reading the Bible, and you came upon a certain verse and God said,
"Don t you remember? Don t you remember what I promised? This is what I promised
. I m the same God. I haven t changed My mind." God repeated His promise so you
would grow by the repetition.
God did something else in His answer to Abram. He not only repeated the promise;
He clarified it. In Abram s case, that was even more important than God s repea
ting it, because Abram was actually puzzled over how the promise might be fulfil
led.
Have you ever had God stoop to explain things to you? At the time you may not ha
ve realized what He was doing. You were struggling to understand. But afterward
you looked back and said, "How gracious God was to explain something like that!
Any fool should have been able to understand what was happening. Yet I didn t un
derstand, and God came down to my level and told me exactly what I needed to kno
w." God did a third thing. He not only repeated and clarified the promise, He ex
panded it. He did it by adding the sign of the stars.
Stars do not mean a whole lot to us because we do not look at them very often. I
n many of our smoggy cities today we cannot even see them if we want to. But in
ancient times, and even in the Near East today, the sky is very, very clear. In
the daytime it is so clear that it is almost blinding. At night the stars just s
eem to hang luminously in the sky. You feel you can almost reach up and touch th
em. This is what God showed Abram. God took him out into the clear air under the
stars and said, Look at those stars." Abram looked up. There they were, glorio
us, pointing to the beauty and wisdom of their Creator. God said, "Can you numbe
r those stars? Abram could not, of course. Then God said, "Well, that is what yo
ur posterity is going to be like. So if the time ever comes over the years that
you begin to think, I wonder if God is going to fulfill His promises, just wai
t until night comes and then go out and stand in the field and look up and let t
hese stars be a reminder of how great I am and what My promise to you is. Becaus
e that is what your posterity is going to be. Your descendants are going to be a
s numerous as these stars of heaven."
God pointed Abram up rather than down. Earlier, when He had talked about the num
ber of his descendants, God had said, "They are going to be as numerous as the d
ust of the earth." That probably had bearing upon the promise God made of the la
nd. God said, "I m going to give you this land. Everywhere you walk—east, north,
south, west—that land is going to be yours, and your descendants are going to b
e like the dust of the land." That made sense. But now there is a greater promis
e and a far greater way of proceeding with Abram. God says, "Look up! Look at th
e stars! Don t look down!"
One of our problems is that we are always looking down. Essentially, we are look
ing at ourselves, and that leads to doubt. We look at ourselves and say, "I don
t see how I can do that. I don t see how I can believe what God is promising." I
f we were in Abram s shoes we would say, "I don t see how I am ever going to hav
e any children at my age." But the problem is that we are looking at ourselves.
We are not the one who gives the promises, God is. So what we need to do is stop
looking down and start looking up. We need to have our minds stretched by the g
reatness of God.
God contrasts Himself with Abram when He asks, "Can you count all those stars?"
Abram could not count them, but God could. God could also have asked, "Can you n
ame all those stars?" Abram could not name them, but God has. So when we look up
, we see the greatness of our God; and, if you will, we see beyond the stars to
God Himself who is the one who makes the promise.
The ultimate question in all of life is whether you believe God. It is not a que
stion of whether you believe in God. Many people say they believe in God. There
has to be a God, in their opinion. But this does not mean anything to them. The
real question is whether you believe God, who makes these promises, and whether
you live by what God has promised. Has God spoken? If so, has God spoken clearly
? If God has spoken and has spoken clearly, can God be trusted to do what He has
promised? Wise is one who answers Yes to those questions and then learns to liv
e by faith in those promises.

Fourth Week of Promises

Sunday: Provision
Lord redeems His servants;
no one who takes refuge in Him will be condemned. — Psalm 34:22
Monday: Hope
The poor will eat and be satisfied;
they who seek the Lord will praise Him —
may your hearts live forever!
All the ends of the earth
will remember and turn to the Lord
and all the families of the nations
will bow down before Him,
for dominion belongs to the Lord
and He rules over the nations. —Psalm 22:26-28
Tuesday: Forgiveness
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accorda
nce with the riches of God’s grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom and un
derstanding. — Ephesians 1:7-8
Wednesday: Faithfulness
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for His compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is Your faithfulness.
I say to myself, "The Lord is my portion;
therefore I will wait for Him."
The Lord is good to those whose hope is in Him,
to the one who seeks Him;
it is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord. — Lamentations 3:22-2
6
Thursday: Safety
The Lord watches over you
the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.
The Lord will keep you from all harm —
He will watch over your life;
the Lord will watch over your coming and going
both now and forever more. —Psalm 121:5-
8
Friday: Trust
May God Himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your wh
ole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Chri
st. The one who calls you is faithful and He will do it.
—1 Thessalonians 5:23-24
Saturday: Love
Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love doe
s not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed His love among us: H
e sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This
is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His son as an aton
ing sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought t
o love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love each other, God liv
es in us and His love is made complete in us. —1 John 4:7-12