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Jan 15, 2023 06:00am

Standing on the Promises

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“I can’t wait to see how God is going to take care of this.”

Hitting two deer in two different vehicles within three weeks of each other (one car totaled, both radiators busted, and the other car undriveable), a broken dishwasher, and an undetected leaky toilet that caused our water and sewer bill to more than triple. And all of that during the month of Christmas with seven children in an economy where the price of groceries has doubled.

After finding out about the second vehicle-venison collision and the dollars down the toilet drain (literally) in the same night, my husband and I had every reason to be distraught. So what I said next probably sounded out of place. I turned to him and hopefully said, “I can’t wait to see how God is going to take care of this.”

Faith.

Standing on the promises.

Seeing God’s faithfulness in the past and knowing that he never changes.

These are the things the Holy Spirit brought to mind that I clung to which made me able to say those words instead of panicking.

This was all of grace. I so easily start to fret about even smaller things. But in that moment, the Holy Spirit held me up by reminding me of the things I knew to be true. The promises of God and his character.

What are those promises?

Does God promise we will never have hardships or struggles? Does He promise Christians a life of prosperity and smooth sailing?

No.

But He does promise He will always provide for the needs of his children. Our part is to keep our eyes fixed on Him and doing His will instead of fretting over how we’re going to pay the next grocery bill. His part is to be our Provider, our Jehovah Jireh.

“Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you,” (Matthew 6:31–33).

He promises that our hardships and trials serve a good purpose in our lives. They are to test and prove our faith to be steadfast so we can have genuine hope of being his children; they are to build godly character and perseverance in us—another true marker we can look to for assurance that we are his children; and they are to make us more like his Son, Jesus Christ, conforming us to His holiness and guaranteeing we will see His face one day.

“In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ,” (1 Peter 1:6–7).

“Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us,” (Romans 5:3–5).

He promises His steadfast love and compassion will never leave those who fear Him. Even if we were stripped of everything else—vehicles, fancy appliances, money, houses—nothing could take God’s love from us.

“As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him. . . the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him,” (Psalms 103:13, 17).

“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord,” (Romans 8:38–39).

We may not be guaranteed houses or riches or lands, but these promises from God’s Word are things we can count on.

We can also count on the fact that God is faithful. As his children, we are to remember how God has acted in the past and trust He will do it again. The Israelites were constantly recounting the mighty works of the Lord He performed over and over again to rescue them out of seemingly impossible situations. When they did, their courage, faith, and hope were restored and strengthened. Psalm 78 opens with the psalmist’s declaration of intent to vocalize the amazing things God has done for his people, and then the rest of the psalm (the next sixty-eight verses) does just that!

Give ear, O my people, to my teaching;
incline your ears to the words of my mouth!
I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will utter dark sayings from of old,
things that we have heard and known,
that our fathers have told us.
We will not hide them from their children,
but tell to the coming generation
the glorious deeds of the LORD, and his might,
and the wonders that he has done. Psalms 78:1–4

So as I stood in my kitchen after receiving blow after blow of bad news, wondering how we were going to get out of this financial and logistical mess, God, by His grace, helped me lift my eyes to the hills and remember from where my help comes—“my help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth,” (Psalm 121:1–2).

He helped me recount all the times He has provided for us in the past—how we have never gone without food, a home, clothing—even when we saw no feasible human way to make ends meet. “I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and exult in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High,” (Psalms 9:1–2).

And He helped me see that even if we were stripped down to the bare necessities—the clothes on our back, a no-frills meal, a roof over our heads—but still had Him, that would be enough. Having His steadfast love is like being satisfied with the richest of foods—it is better than life (Psalm 63).

If the Lord is your portion, you have everything you need.

But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:
The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in him.” Lamentations 3:21–24