Promises can be tricky things. If you make them, you have to keep them. More than a few political candidates have said things out on the campaign trail that they couldn't seem to deliver after they won the election. The legislature or the bureaucracy or the courts wouldn't go along with their idea, and the promise went unfulfilled. Voters don't appreciate that.
All of us who are parents know that children take promises very, very seriously. If you say to an eight-year-old, “Sure, we'll go to the park tonight after dinner,” you had better not forget. The same eight-year-old, of course, may frequently forget to make his bed, feed the dog, or bring his bike in from the rain. But he has a photographic memory when it comes to your commitments to him. Any shortcoming on your part is sure to bring on a storm of protest: “But you promised!”
God, by contrast, is an entirely reliable promise maker. The reason Joshua could march into Canaan with confidence is because God had promised it to him. The reason Joshua's army could fight with courage is because God had said, “I will be with you” (Josh. 1:5). In the time of the judges, when things got really crazy, someone remembered God's promise about prayer, so they “cried out to the LORD” more than once (Judg. 3:9; 3:15; 6:6; 10:10).
In fact, God seems to enjoy making promises. Time and again he announces in advance what he's going to do. Before Abram ever left Ur of the Chaldeans, God promised, “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you” (Gen. 12:2). Once Abram got to Canaan and started looking around, God told him repeatedly, “All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever” (Gen. 13:15 and elsewhere).
Before Jacob ever left his uncle's employment in Paddan Aram, God said to him, “Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper” (Gen. 32:9)—even though his brother Esau was poised to avenge the trick Jacob had played on him long ago.
Before Joseph was lifted to prominence and leadership in the nation of Egypt, God already gave him two dreams that predicted this (Gen. 37:5–9).
Before Moses ever ventured back from the desert where he had hidden for forty years, God promised him at the burning bush, “Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say” (Exod. 4:12).
While David was still a young nobody out in the field, God's prophet was sent to anoint him as the future king (1 Sam. 16:1–13).
Before Jesus came the first time, there were myriad promises about where he would be born, what he would do, how he would be received, and how he would die.
Before he left to return to heaven, he promised the eleven disciples that “in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit, … [and] you will receive power” (Acts 1:5, 8).
Why does God do this kind of thing? Why does he so often “tip his hand” ahead of time?
I can think of at least two reasons. First, God secures the glory this way. Nobody can say, “Wasn't that an interesting coincidence how that happened?” The script was already published in advance through the promise of God. We have no choice but to give him honor and praise as a result.
Second, God wants to teach us to trust him. He sometimes informs those who belong to him about what he is going to do, and we must trust his word, even though it seems unlikely if not impossible. Sometimes he delays a long time. Abraham and his wife had to wait forever, it seemed to them, for the promise of an heir to come true. They were getting older and older. Would God actually make good on his promise after so long? It was a matter of trust.
No one should say, as we sometimes cynically say about people whom we know all too well, “Ah, promises, promises….” This is God talking to us! He keeps his word. It is part of his character. He would not be God if he didn't.
Remember the Word
If we are ever fearful that God might not follow through on his promises, there is a two-line verse in Psalm 119—yes, the longest chapter in the Bible—that fits this situation. I am aware that many Christians skip over this psalm because it is so long (176 verses) and seemingly repetitive. If you're getting ready for bed in the late evening and just want to read one psalm before you turn out the light, don't pick this one—you will still be reading at four in the morning.
Psalm 119 is actually an elaborate acrostic built on the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet, with eight verses for each letter (22 x 8 = 176). The beginning for the letter zayin (comparable to our English letter Z) comes in verse 49 and is a powerful statement for anyone to whom God has made a promise. It is a prayer of reinforcement:
Remember your word to your servant,
for you have given me hope.
We should put this verse onto posters and hang them on our walls. We should engrave it on plaques and mirrors. We should design it into needlework patterns. We should, at the very least, emblazon it into our memory banks so it can become a spiritual anchor in our prayer times.
What is this “word” that the psalmist holds up for our attention? Basically, it is the Bible. Here is where we find God's irrevocable promises about many things. The Bible is the foundation for all doctrine and matters of faith. Because of that, we can call on God and say, “Remember what you promised in your Word to your people. Follow through, O Lord!”
It sounds almost audacious to remind God of anything, doesn't it? He is omniscient, after all. But this is not being impolite toward God. If anything, this is affirming his character. He welcomes the Psalm 119:49 kind of praying. As Charles Spurgeon, the great British preacher of the late 1800s, once said, “Whether we like it or not, asking is the rule of the kingdom.”1
The Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir sings a song by Luther Barnes that never fails to lift my spirit and cause me to stand with affirmation.
Everything he said in his Word
He will do it for you.
Every prophecy he gave, every promise he made
He will do it for you.
If you only trust him and let him have his way,
He'll work things out for you.
Only believe, and you will see
He will do it for you.
He will do it, he will do it,
He will do it, he will do it….
My God will do it for you.2
A Personalized Word
In addition to remembering God's Word, it's important to listen for the specific things God might say to us. God often takes the general promises in his written Word and applies them to our lives in a personal way. The psalmist hints at this by talking about “your word to your servant.” There seems to be a special application here. This is what you and I experience when we may be reading the Bible and a particular verse almost jumps off the page in front of us. We may be praying, quietly waiting before the Lord, and an unexpected thought or possibility stirs our hearts. We may be singing in church or listening to a sermon, and we sense in our spirits that God is speaking a personalized word just to us.
It may be something he wants us to do for him.
It may be the answer to a problem that has plagued us for a long time.
It may be an assurance that things are going to work out all right after all, whether in our family, our career, our church, or some other arena.
Paul wrote to Timothy about his ordination, when something specific “was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you” (1 Tim. 4:14). These were not words for the congregation in general; they were meant for Timothy alone.
God has a way of planting things in our hearts at odd times and in odd places. He can even take us by surprise. But if we make ourselves open to his voice, whether in our devotional practice or in the middle of busy traffic on the way home from work, he can invade our lives and reveal his purposes for us.
This kind of word especially can become an anchor to our prayer times. Let this be the cry of every Christian, like a persistent child: “O God, don't forget your word to your servant! It's the bedrock of my hope. It's what I cling to. It's what keeps me from drowning in the waters of despair. Remember what you said, Lord! Keep it right there in front of your eyes.”
God has said in his Word, “I am the LORD; those who hope in me will not be disappointed” (Isa. 49:23). Romans 10:11 quotes another verse from Isaiah with this wording: “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” These are rock-solid promises to which we must cling. We can pray, “God, at one time in the past you spoke something to me. You caused me to anticipate something from you in my life. It has not happened yet. But that word is still alive in my heart. Are you the kind of God who would speak something to me and then let me down? No! That isn't your nature.
“So I cling to your word with anticipation. Don't disappoint me, God. Remember what you said to me. I know you will come through. I fully expect your promise to hold true!”
Jesus once came to a good friend of his who was going through a terrible time—the death of her brother—and said, “Your brother will rise again” (John 11:23). Martha could not entirely absorb that promise. When she and the others led Jesus out to the burial cave an hour or so later and he suggested removing the stone, she protested that the smell of decay would be pungent by now.
“Then Jesus said, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” (John 11:40)
Remember the word! Don't give up on it! God never backs away from one of his promises, and we shouldn't either. Cling to it in faith and expectation. Underline Psalm 119:49 in your Bible. Turn to it often. Lift it up before God as a reinforcement of his covenant promise to you. Let it strengthen your confidence in him.
The Promise of Things to Come
My wife, Carol, still remembers the day back in her home on Devon Road in Woodbridge, New Jersey, when, as a shy fifteen-year-old, she was making a bed. She fluffed the sheet into the air so it would land in the right position—and as she did, she suddenly saw herself raising her arms in the same motion, only now as an adult woman … in front of a massive choir! She was directing a song, and the singers were of all different colors and races. They were enthusiastically following her guidance, moving and rejoicing before the Lord.
What in the world! She was only fifteen years old. How would such a thing ever develop for little, unknown Carol Hutchins?
The memory of that incident has helped Carol many times over the years when she felt discouraged or overwhelmed with the work of the choir. She knows God would not have shown her that picture without helping her to fulfill it. It has bolstered her tremendously.
God does not waste his communication. He is always working from the long perspective. We may forget all about what he says, but he does not. He brings to pass what he has promised. It is for us to keep believing, keep waiting, keep praying, and keep holding on.
If God has told you he's going to reclaim your wayward child, it is going to happen.
If God has told you he's going to provide for your financial needs, it is going to happen.
If God has told you he's going to put you into a field of ministry you've never tried before, and you're going to be effective regardless, it is going to happen.
If God has told you he's going to bring a baby into your arms, it is going to happen.
If God has told you he's going to break that long-standing bondage or weakness in your life, it is going to happen.
He may not come through as quickly as you would like. But he is never late. He operates by his own calendar. And the results are good for us in the end. I have known people whom God impressed with a dream back in childhood. It took years for the dream to come true. But God did not forget, and neither did that person. In time, the vision became reality.
What Has God Promised You?
Was there ever a time when you felt God spoke a word into your heart about what he would do with you or for you? Maybe it was during a quiet time alone with God. Maybe it was something that happened at the end of a church service. Hang onto that. Pin this Scripture to the front wall of your mind:
God is not a human, that he should lie,
not a human being, that he should change his mind.
Does he speak and then not act?
Does he promise and not fulfill? (Num. 23:19).
Not only does Satan want to rob you of peace, as we mentioned earlier, but he also wants to snatch away that special word that produces faith and expectation. He wants you to give up on ever seeing it happen. He will tell you you're too old now; you've missed your chance.
But the reality of walking in God's promises is that he made you for more. And there is no way imaginable that he will not bring to pass what he has said. You are his beloved child, and he is the best Father in the world. He will not disappoint you. He will do what he has promised in your life.