Promise: Reason to Expect Something

God’s way is perfect.

All the Lord’s promises prove true.

He is a shield for all who look to him for protection.

(Psalm 18:30 NLT)

The first promise besides "that whosever believeth in Him shall have everlasting life" that I "claimed" in my youth was from the book of Hebrews. I found the promise in the Gideon's Bible, when I went to Buffalo for my Air Force physical. It was my first time away from home, my first physical as a teen-aged girl and I was embarking on the adventure of my life. 

I had known Jesus from Sunday School and Vacation Bible School. He was my Savior, but I was just beginning to understand that He wanted to be the Lord of my life. After graduation, on the advice of some mentors from church I met with the Air Force recruiter. My youth leaders taught me to seek His will through prayer and Scriptures. So when I found the Gideon's Bible in my hotel room, I came across a page with topics, like loneliness. Under that topic, I looked up verses on trust.

As I read the words from Hebrews 13:5b, I experienced the personal promise of Jesus that He would never leave nor forsake me. And time after time, as I left home for basic training and being stationed in the Philippines, I would rehearse that promise in my heart.

The other life long promise He gave me that night in the hotel was a directive and a promise: 

Trust in the Lord with all your heart

And do not lean on your own understanding.

In all your ways acknowledge Him,

And He will make your paths straight.

(Proverbs 3:5,6 NASB)

Whenever I was lonely for home or afraid for my future, God would bring this promise back to mind. A mere two years after God gave the promise to me, I would be surprised that someone else knew this promise as well.

I was stationed in Del Rio, Texas at Laughlin AFB during the spring of 1986, and I was dating this handsome fellow. And I was praying hard to know if it was God's will for us to become a married couple. One day he left for a trip, and I borrowed his car. He left a note encouraging me that we would trust God together and at the end he wrote, Proverbs 3:5,6! (I had never told him that it was my guiding promise!)

We were engaged by May of that year and exchanged vows on October 18, 1986. (Twenty-seven years ago today.) God keeps his promises.

What promise has God made to you? Have you ever written it on a 3x5 card, like Pam Farrel suggests in her book, 30 Ways to Wake Up Your Quiet Time? 

Here's a creative way her family shared promises one year:

One Christmas my mother gave every daughter and daughter-in-law in the family the same quiet time book and journal. When we saw each other throughout the year, we shared promises that we had gleaned from God for our own lives--and each other's.

Creating your own Bible promise book can help you navigate the pain of grief...or loss. God knows what your pain is and His Word can be a healing balm.

©Pam Farrel from 30 Ways to Wake Up Your Quiet Time (IVP). For more devotional books by Pam www.Love-wise.com

Again: Once More

All these whom we have mentioned maintained their faith but died without actually receiving God’s promises, though they had seen them in the distance, had hailed them as true and were quite convinced of their reality. They freely admitted that they lived on this earth as exiles and foreigners. Men who say that mean, of course, that their eyes are fixed upon their true home-land. If they had meant the particular country they had left behind, they had ample opportunity to return. No, the fact is that they longed for a better country altogether, nothing less than a heavenly one. And because of this faith of theirs, God is not ashamed to be called their God for in sober truth he has prepared for them a city in Heaven.

(Hebrews 11:13-16 J.B Phillips)

 

Linking up with Five Minute Fridays, a place where we are given a word and a challenge to write for five minutes.

 

GO.

Again. I hear a simple, direct voice, say: “I have a plan for your life. It’s meant for your good, not your harm. A future and a hope.”  I am relieved. I go to the book where the words were first written down by a weeping prophet. In this version it says, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare, and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11 ESV)

 

My eye falls on the word welfare, which has a footnote. Welfare means peace. Peace, well-being, that’s what I want.

Then I wonder, what’s the context? I’ve rehearsed that single sentence to myself for comfort again and again, but I want to know why God said it in the first place. Go back to the beginning of the chapter. Jeremiah sent a letter to the exiles in Babylon. There was some confusion. Was their exile temporary or was it for seventy years? Who should they listen to? Some were saying this won’t last; God won’t really make you stay there for seventy years. Jeremiah sends word to clarify.

Yes, God did say seventy years! And while you're there, multiply, don’t decrease. Don’t wither up in despair. Live! Get married! Make babies! You are coming back to Jerusalem and you will need people to repopulate the Promised Land. And while you’re in the city of your captivity, pray for the welfare of that city. Because if you do, guess what, it’s welfare directly benefits your welfare.

That’s a real life example of praying for peace for your enemies.

Again God turns everything upside down on its head. Don’t believe the liars or the scoffers. God will keep His promises. Jesus will return again. And in the meantime, pray for the welfare of your city, the place of your exile, while you wait. And live again!

 

STOP.