Do You Stand On The Promises of God?
Good Morning Friends,
Yesterday in Church we were singing a song by Composer Russell Kelso Carter called Standing on the Promises. It falls in the oldie but goodie category. It kind of felt like a marching tune and perhaps that was by design, somewhat like Onward Christian Soldiers. The theme though is more like the hymn, My Hope is Built on Nothing Less. According to the footnotes the words stand and promise never appear together in the Bible. That seems amazing really as by one person’s count there are 3573 promises in the Bible…The words stand and promise actually appear much less frequently so maybe it is the thought that counts here as well as the story of composer. At age 30 having been trained in the military and also as a Methodist minister, and even though he was an athlete, Carter’s health was in critical condition and the physicians could do no more for him. Carter turned to God for help and healing. Although Carter was a professed Christian most of his life, it wasn’t until a crisis with his natural heart that he began to understand the reality and power of Bible promises. He spent the last of his professional years as a doctor of medicine. The hymn Carter had written several years before his healing miracle became more than words and music to him…it became an integral part of his life. He died at the age of 79. So do you believe enough… Do You Stand On The Promises of God?
Scripture: For in him every one of God’s promises is a ‘Yes.’ For this reason it is through him that we say the ‘Amen’, to the glory of God.
2 Corinthians 1: 20 (NRSV)
‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going.’
John 14:1-4 (NRSV)
Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful.
Hebrews 10:23 (NRSV)
Message: The first promise in the Bible is in Genesis 3:15 and the last is in Revelation 22:20. You can look them up. But today’s scripture promise is sandwiched in between them and it is from Jesus. In it Jesus has just told His disciples that He is going to die and that they are not to follow Him yet. He has told them of His betrayal, of Peter’s impending denial and of His return. They were growing scared not because of the possibility of imprisonment but because of His statement that they could not come with Him. They do not understand. They are bewildered and troubled. Indeed Jesus’ heart was undoubtedly troubled too by the impending separation from His disciples. So Jesus, the Christ, comforts himself and the disciples all at once as He instructs them not to worry. Here he helps them focus on the future, a future when they will have the Holy Spirit, a future when He returns and brings them and us home. In all this, Jesus is showing the way to paradise…the way to healing. The disciples, and we as well, have longed for such a place, we have felt that such a place might exist and now Jesus tells us that it is true. Death is not the great nothingness. There is a heaven where we will belong, a city without pain, a city without sorrow, where we will be part of the family of God. It will be a real reunion. Here we are comforted with the promise that heaven is ready for us and it will be resplendent and we will be restored and everything will be just right. To receive this salvation all we have to do is believe, and that is the way, direct from Jesus. It is a promise that can begin today as we work to glorify God for the Kingdom to Come.
Pray that the promises of God would speak to our hearts…fueling our hopes and flaming our actions with the power of God’s purpose…supernatural peace. Pray our prayer of faith speaks to the heart of the need….to the promises of God. Pray that we learn how to receive the promises of God. Pray our perspective embraces the promises of God. Pray with faith and trust we aligned our future to the promises of God. Pray we find joy in His changing history and through His unchanging love.
Pray we grab hold of the promises of God and not be moved from them. Pray we say yes to God’s yes.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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