The Promises of God.

January 8th Reading: Romans 3-4

Romans 4:20–21 No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.  

There are thousands of promises given by God to his people. Herbert Lockyer is known for his series of books on “All the _______ of the Bible. His book “All the Promises of the Bible” states there are more than 8,000. Now some of the promises are made to specific individuals at a particular time and therefore would not be wise to apply to ourselves. Context controls promises. Genre controls promises. For example, the book of Proverbs is wisdom literature and cannot be taken as literal promises.

Here in Romans, Abraham does not waver concerning the promise of God. God promised to make Abraham a father of many nations, yet Abraham was old and his wife Sarah was passed childbearing age, yet He believed God’s promise. Even when all of the physical, historical, and technical evidence says it cannot happen but God says it will happen… then it will happen. Abraham was “fully convinced” that God was able to dow what he had promised.

I love th point that is made in verse 20 that Abraham grew strong in his faith. While Abraham waited on God to fulfill his promise his faith grew stronger. Sadly, I believe the opposite is true of many people today. Faith tends to weaken and dissolve when the promise is delayed. We have to fight our cultural conditioning of “instant results.” Many of God’s promises take time to percolate. Often they are not seen for weeks, months, or even years. The questions remain, “Is my faith growing stronger?” “Do I really believe God is going to come through?”

Ask God to show you in his word some promises so you can grow in your faith.

I finish with a quote from D.L. Moody on the promises of God.

“Take the promises of God. Let a man feed for a month on the promises of God, 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!” – Dwight L. Moody