Stand on God’s Promises
Ever had a promise broken? A payment doesn’t come, the repairman doesn’t show up, or your friend doesn’t call? Count on it, people will let you down. But God won’t: ‘He always does exactly what He says. He…fulfils all…[His] promises.’ (2 Corinthians 1:19–20 TLB) Knowing that enables you to keep walking by faith while you wait for them to be fulfilled. James MacDonald says: ‘It’s the not-knowing that crushes us. We doubt… worry… despair… falter and fail… If we knew how this was going to play out we’d be ok. We…can take a bad day… month… year… or decade… as long as we know how it will end. A health crisis… a question about your marriage… uncertainty over a child… we all have areas… where we need to hold on to what God has said… He knows what He promised, He can’t lie, and He can’t forget. He’ll deliver on time. Who else can make promises like that? Now I wish I could tell you it always figures out perfectly in our lifetimes, but I’d be lying… You cannot make sense of [His] promises… with this life only. You must factor in the reality of eternity… Eternity brings it all together… eternal life… and the assurance of Heaven are what make His promises so precious.’
Victor Frankl, who survived the horrors of the Holocaust, said, ‘A weak faith is weakened by predicaments and catastrophes, whereas a strong faith is strengthened by them.’ A Sunday school class was memorising Psalm 23 and little Tommy was struggling. On the big day he stepped up to the microphone, grinned at the audience and announced, ‘The Lord is my Shepherd—and that’s all I know!’ And it’s all you need to know for now.