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ALWAYS TRUE

Moody Publishers

Contents

Foreword...................................................................................9Let's Begin................................................................................17Theology of a Promise: God is a Promiser by nature.........................................29Promise #1: God Is Always with Me (I Will Not Fear).......................................33Theology of a Promise: God keeps His promises..............................................51Promise #2: God Is Always in Control (I Will Not Doubt)...................................59Theology of a Promise: God wants us to test His promises...................................75Promise #3: God Is Always Good (I Will Not Despair).......................................83Theology of a Promise: God's promises are activated by faith...............................99Promise #4: God Is Always Watching (I Will Not Falter)....................................107Theology of a Promise: God's promises are experienced in Jesus Christ......................127Promise #5: God Is Always Victorious (I Will Not Fail)....................................135A Final Word of Encouragement..............................................................145Acknowledgments............................................................................147Scripture Index............................................................................149Notes......................................................................................151

Chapter One

I'm sitting in my office now, listening to a song I used to sob through, and I am thinking about you.

I remember with stark vividness what it was like to have nothing but the promises of God. When I began to search the Scriptures for promises I did so with trembling hands and a desperate heart. I had to know what was going to happen in some incredibly dark days. I knew I could grope my way to the light if I just knew God had some hope for me that would carry me right through to the end. That's what the promises of God are all about, and I long for you to find them in a way that is quicker and easier than what I had to go through. Think for a moment ... God has made some promises ...

The very idea that God commits Himself to do anything is incredible. He doesn't have to bind Himself to us in any way. He's God—completely above and beyond us. As part of His creation, we are in no position to hold Him to anything; He owes us nothing. Before we get into our study; we must pause and get our minds around this inconceivable assertion: God flat out promises to do some things—for us. In fact, given certain circumstances, God has already told us what He will do! That's amazing. Second Peter 1:4 says, "By which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises" (NKJV). God has recorded some assurances and He thinks they're "exceedingly great and precious." I love that! Let's unpack that a bit ...

I Promise!

It's impossible to trick our kids anymore on April Fools' Day. After years of practical jokes and all kinds of fun chicanery that Kathy and I have poured out on them, they're now wise to it all. We even have to keep our eyes peeled for counterattacks!

One year we rushed into their bedrooms at six a.m. shouting, "Get up! We're late for school!" We had changed every clock in the house to read an hour later. Our yawning offspring ran downstairs, half-dressed. We stuffed them in the car and hurried across town—only to find the school parking lot empty. Kathy and I yelled, "April Fools!" and took them out for breakfast. The days of tricking our children on April 1st are over. They see it coming for weeks ahead of time.

However, one of the fallouts from teasing them is that when I wanted to be serious about something, they hesitated to believe me, wondering if we might be playing another joke. We had to make an unbreakable rule that if I said, "I promise," they could totally, completely trust me.

Though I could not perfectly fulfill the intent of those words in every instance they know to this day that when Dad says, "I promise," he is incredibly serious and will devote himself 100 percent to what he has said.

The problem of course is that we're human. We disappoint one another all the time—even the ones we love, even when we don't mean to. Our best intentions don't always happen.

And that's where we're so much different from God. When God says, "I promise," He delivers, because He can, and nothing will thwart or delay His intention to do exactly as He has promised. He doesn't forget or get distracted ... He cannot lie and He cannot fail. God always follows through, on time, every time! When He makes a commitment, He keeps it. When He gives His word; it's a done deal.

A promise and the Promiser

A general definition of a promise is "a declaration of what someone will do." A promise usually implies a positive, dependable consequence. If there's a promise, we believe something good is going to happen. If something bad is in the wind, we call it a threat. While God does make threats regarding the outcomes for bad behavior, those are not promises—they're a topic for a different kind of book.

What God understands and we must too, is that the character of the Promiser is on the line in every promise. Our church's longtime elder board chairman taught me that God honors the one "who swears to his own hurt" (Psalm 15:4). Whenever our backs were against the wall, and especially when our church was small and every decision was so critical, he insisted that our first action would always be to keep our word and do what we had promised even if the consequences were negative for us.

If we give our word, we've got to follow through. And the way the Lord values His relationship with us can't be appreciated until we realize how incredibly invested our God is in keeping His promises to us. How can we not be overwhelmed by the significance of Romans 8:32, "He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?" Having given so much, God will surely never stop and refuse to complete in smaller things what He began to do for us in Christ.

Hang on to God's promises

How we relate to God is largely determined by what we do with His promises. All that stands between you and what He has promised you is time. This book is about learning to live with today in the reality of what God has promised is our future. Even when it's hard to trust, God's promises remain the same. Nothing can change God's stated intent. Keep in mind that God even sympathizes with the challenge it is for us to lean on His promises: "He knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust" (Psalm 103:14). God has not left you wondering about what's going to happen, or uncertain about the future, or overcome by fear. He makes promises to you so you can get through the long nights and the difficult days of waiting.

He asks you to hang on to His assurances of determined outcomes to get through the dark times when life is hard.

In the meantime ...

The hardest moment of hanging on, of course, is the gap between believing His promise and receiving the fulfillment of that...