What is a promise?

What is a promise? A promise is the assurance God gives His people so that they can walk by faith while they wait for Him to work.

A promise is something God gave us to hold on to. He told us in 2 Peter 1:4 that we will receive exceedingly great and precious promises. He promises to give us promises – how great is that.

But what is truly awesome is the fact that God doesn’t owe us any promises. He doesn’t owe us anything and we aren’t in any position to hold him to anything. However, He loves us so much He offers us promise after promise.

The power of God’s promises –

The general definition of “promise” is the declaration that someone will do something for you. However, that promise is only as good as the person making it. God has proven the awesome power that He holds. Just look at the sky, stand next to the ocean, hold a new born baby – you’ll see, God is awesome. Realizing the same God who holds the earth in His hand is the same God who makes personal promises to you and to me.

When we recognize who is actually holding our pinky in the pinky promise, we can actually plant our feet and truly stand on the promises of God.

Romans 8:32 says if God gave us his Son to die for us, won’t He also give us all things? 

“But what about those times when I just can’t seem to feel God or see Him working things out? What do I do when I am in the middle of a storm and it seems God is nowhere to be found?”

The hardest part of hanging on to God’s promises is in the gap between believing the promise and receiving God’s fulfillment of that promise. The struggle is in the waiting.

That is faith. The distance between today and the day when we see the promise fulfilled is called walking by faith. The not knowing is what crushes out spirits. We doubt and fear because we can’t see the outcome. But God understands that.

God feels compassion for the pain of not knowing. That is why He gave us the idea of promises. It’s the hope that sees us through to the other side.

God’s promises tell us that what we saw so clearly in the daylight hasn’t changed just because the valley we are walking through is dark.

As we go through this series, we will start to unpack certain promises God makes us. There are a few specific ones that I have found to be the biggest rocks to cling to when facing the unknown.

First, we are going to uncover why God’s promises are great. Why cling to God’s promises and not more tangible things the world offers us? Why not just do it ourselves? What if it seems God has let us down…do we believe His promises are in fact all He says they are?

Today I want to ask you this question…. Has there been a time in your life where you felt like God had failed to come through for you? In the middle of the situation maybe you felt like all hope was lost. Having made it to the other side, can you look back and see where God was truly there all along? Do you believe now that God was faithful to His promises?