BULLETIN ARTICLE
14 April 2019
PROMISES MADE – PROMISES KEPT

The chorus of a favourite BKC hymn by Russell Kelso Carter (1849-1928) goes like this:
“Standing, standing, standing on the promises of God my Saviour;
Standing, standing, I’m standing on the promises of God.”

However, have you ever stopped to consider what it means to be “standing on the promises of God”? We must first understand what a “promise” means. The Cambridge dictionary defines a “promise” as “saying certainly”, “to tell someone that you will certainly do something”. A promise is also defined as something to “be expected”. These dictionary definitions hint at the underlying meaning of a promise – a promise is meant to give assurance to the other party that something will be done and certainly, it can be expected. A promise only achieves its objective if you believe in the promise but, more importantly, if you trust in the maker of the promise, and that he will make the promised content come true.

There are worldly mechanisms here to help you make promises more certain. A contract is a good example, commonly defined as a “legally binding promise”. Contracts make promises binding as they involve the “exchange” of something else of value, e.g. payment of money/goods or another promise, in return for the first promise. But contracts are not what God gives his people in the Bible.

We are told in Genesis 17 that God “covenants” with Abraham. God promised Abraham great things, without asking for anything in return. A covenant isn’t a promise which Abraham could “enforce” unlike a contract but we know that Abraham fully believed in the promises given to him by God. He had full faith in the maker of the promise – God – and did not doubt, nor demand that God would make them come true. “Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness” (Gen 15:6).

t is good to learn from Abraham and his simple faith – he simply believed in the God of promise and for him to provide and deliver. We often worry about many things in life but why should we if we believe in the promises God has given us, and more importantly, in the maker of the promises himself? God’s promises aren’t “legally binding”, but they are certain and can be believed in because of the character, words and works of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In 2 Peter 1:3-4, we are assured that: “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.”

Let us stand firm on the promises of God, believing in the character and might of our Jesus our Lord, and claim the promises God has given in the Bible as promises over our lives! “Standing, standing, I’m standing on the promises of God.”