Feeding on the promises

The sheer number of promises in the Bible, and the variety of subjects that they refer to, justify the claim that the Promises of God constitute one of the major themes in the Bible.

C H Spurgeon in his little daily reading book, ‘The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith’ likens the promises unto cheques that have been written and signed by God and which we have to cash in. In his introduction to his book on the promises, Spurgeon writes:

“The more we study the words of grace, the more grace shall we receive from the words.”

He continues:

“I believe all the promises of God, but many of them I have personally tried and proved. I have seen that they are true, for they have been fulfilled to me.”

He tells us that he commenced these daily promises at a time of great controversy in his life and ministry. Since then he had endured tribulations of many kinds: sharp bodily pain and mental depression, accompanied by bereavement and affliction in one who was very dear to him. The waters rolled in continually, wave upon wave. It was his testimony that never were the promises of God so precious.

D L Moody said of them:

“Let a man feed on the promises of God for a month and he will not talk about how poor he is. You hear people say, ‘Oh, my leanness! How lean I am!’ It is not their leanness, it is their laziness. If you would only read from Genesis to Revelation and see all the promises made by God to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, to the Jews and to the Gentiles, and to all His people everywhere—if you would spend a month feeding on the precious promises of God—you wouldn’t be going about complaining how poor you are. You would lift up your head and proclaim the riches of His Grace, because you couldn’t help doing it!”

Some of these promises are personal and have to do with various aspects of Christian experience:

In times of despair, when all hope seems to have gone, we discover, like Christian in Doubting Castle, that the promises of God are the KEY that unlocks the door.

Psalms 42:11 Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.

Some of them have to do with spiritual growth and progress in godliness and holiness.

2 Corinthians 7:1 Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.

Some of them are given to us to help us endure all the various trials and temptations that come upon us as we journey on towards heaven.

Some of them have to do with our work for the LORD.

Galatians 6:9 And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

Some of them have to do with growing old.

2 Corinthians 4:14 knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.

16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. 17 For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

Some of the promises that God has given us are promises that give us confidence and hope

Hebrews 6:17 So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, 18 so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. 19 We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain,

According to the dictionary:

“to make a promise is to tell someone that you will certainly do something”

God has given us a Bible full of promises. In each of these promises He tells us that He will certainly do something. Yet the nature of a promise is such that it has to be believed.

Let us do as Moody exhorts, let us feed upon God’s promises. Let us lay hold of them in faith and in doing so make them work for us.