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| Volume 25 Number 3 March 2023 |
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| Volume 25 Number 3 March 2023 |
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The Promises of God
Hiram Kemp
There are many reasons to love and appreciate our God. However, one of the primary reasons to adore and to praise God is because He always keeps His promises. God is a God who cannot lie (Numbers 23:19; Titus 1:2). It is impossible for God to lie, and therefore, we can place our hope firmly in Him (Hebrews 6:18). The truthfulness of God should motivate God’s people to see Him as the trustworthy God who always delivers whatever He says He will. When God promises us something, we can be sure that it will come to pass. In this article, let us notice a few of the promises that God made to us and allow our faith to be bolstered as we contemplate His execution of those promises.
God’s Abiding Presence
One of the things that God promised His people is His abiding presence. When Joshua replaced Moses, God promised Joshua that He would be with him wherever he went (Joshua 1:9). We read later of Joshua’s success, which was no doubt based upon the presence of Yahweh (Joshua 21:43-45; 24:29-31). When Jesus came into the world, it is said He would be called Emanuel, which means God with us (Matthew 1:23). As Jesus’ earthly ministry was ending and He was preparing to ascend back to the right hand of God, He promised His disciples that He would always be present (Matthew 28:20). The promise of Jesus’ continual presence was not just true for those present when He uttered those words. Matthew wrote those words down, and they have been preserved for all of God’s people down through the centuries. If our lives are free from covetousness, we will be able to be content with God’s presence because He has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5 NKJV).
God promised to be with us as His children, and we can live every day confidently knowing no matter what, He is there. We can neither escape His presence nor should we want to escape from the presence of God (Psalm 139:7-11). God’s presence gives us the courage to face the challenges because we realize that we do not battle alone. We are clothed with God’s armor and surrounded by His presence (Ephesians 6:10-17). The enduring presence of God is one of the promises He made and kept. Let us be cognizant and grateful for God’s presence as we live for Him.
God’s Eternal Word
People have said negative things about the Bible throughout the centuries, but no one has been able to get rid of it. The Bible is here to stay no matter how much unbelievers and skeptics may despise it. God gave us the Bible, and He also promised that it would endure forever. The grass and flowers are transient, but the Word of the Lord endures forever (Isaiah 40:6-8). The prophet Isaiah wrote 700 years before Jesus Christ, but we can still read and study his writings today. When Jesus preached about the destruction of the Temple, He reiterated Isaiah’s words. “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” (Matthew 24:35). Furthermore, Jesus emphasized that Scripture cannot be broken (John 10:35). This means that the Bible is unchangeable, and it is indestructible. We should take confidence as we read our Bibles that we are reading the same words that were originally penned in Hebrew and Greek but have been preserved for us to read in English today. The God Who promised the Word has protected the Word from ruin or extinction. Peter wrote to Christians in Asia Minor, and he quoted from Isaiah to stress the abiding nature of the Word of God (1 Peter 1:23-25).
Jesus’ Arrival and Advocacy
Jesus was promised in the Old Testament. The Old Testament promised that he would be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2). Isaiah said he would be born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14). We are even told that he would suffer terribly on humanity’s behalf (Psalm 22; Isaiah 53). When we turn to the pages of the New Testament, that is exactly what and Who we find. The promised Messiah came and fulfilled every prophecy and promise that God made about Him in the Old Testament (Luke 24:44). Paul went as far as to say, “For all the promises of God in Him [Christ Jesus] are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us” (2 Corinthians 1:20). God did not simply promise that Jesus would come to die for us but that He would live to continually aid us during our earthly sojourn (Hebrews 7:25). Jesus is in Heaven right this moment serving as our Advocate (1 John 2:1-2). He is sitting at the right hand of God making intercession for the people of God (Romans 8:33-35). What God promised and delivered in Jesus is far beyond anything we could have expected. Jesus came to earth from Heaven so that one day we could go from Earth to Heaven (Philippians 3:20-21; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).
Eternal Life
The final promise worthy of our consideration is the promise of eternal life. Eternal life is the promise that God made before the world began (Titus 1:2). Our minds struggle to think back that far because we were not there, but God was, and He has been keeping His Word ever since. John simply stated that God promised us eternal life (1 John 2:25). We already possess eternal life in one sense if we are Christians (1 John 5:13). Still, we are waiting for the full realization of our eternal inheritance, which we will not receive until we see Jesus and are ushered into His presence forevermore. We do not have to doubt our salvation. If we are walking in the light, we are cleansed from our sins and assured of eternal life (1 John 1:7). God will not cast us out and no one can take us out of His hand (John 6:37; 10:29). Eternal life in the New Testament deals with both a quality of life and a duration of life. We enjoy the abundant life now (John 10:10), and we will live forever when this life concludes (John 11:25).
Conclusion
Thank God that He keeps His promises, and we can depend on Him. Read your Bible, looking for the promises of God, and cling to them. See God as the one Who fulfills everything He foretold. God keeps His promises to us, and this should motivate us to keep our promises to Him (2 Timothy 2:11-13).
