Word of Encouragement (9/9/2020)

Yesterday, we started talking about the three ways by which we make the right use of God’s promises—believing them, applying them, and praying them. Today, we will talk about what it means to apply the promises of God. This is what the authors say:

“Application of the promises, in brief, means that we do not sit idle and wait for the promises of God to come true in our lives, but rather, by the Spirit’s grace, we lean on them as the king of Israel leaned on his captains hand (2 Kings 7:2), resort to them as David resorted to the stone in his pouch (1 Sam. 17:40), and eye them as Elijah’s servant eyes the sea, waiting for the rain cloud (1 Kings 18:43-44)” (p. 59).

We lean on the promises of God “by serious and frequent meditation upon them” (p. 59). Why “serious and frequent” meditation on them? The authors ask, “Do we expect to empty a well by drawing a single bucketful or mine a river of all its gold by washing a single panful of water and soil” (p. 59)? Spurstowe says,

“When a Christian first turns his thoughts towards the promises, the appearance of light and comfort which shine from them do oft-times seem to be as weak and imperfect rays which neither scatter fears nor darkness; [but] when again he sets himself to ripen and improve his thoughts upon them, then the evidence and comfort which they yield to the soul, is both more clear and distinct; but when the heart and affections are fully fixed in the meditation of a promise…, [w]hat legions of beauties do then appear from every part of it which both ravish and fill the soul of a believer with delight” (p. 60)!

The authors remind us, “Our problem, then, is not so much a lack of faith but a failure to truly apply the promises, so as to depend on them…. The problem is not the promise; it is our failure to lean and depend on it in meditation, to confer with it and chew on it until we feel the sweetness of it in our mouths” (p. 60).

This makes sense, doesn’t it? If someone gave you a promise to rescue you from a difficult situation, would you not remind yourself of that promise and hold on to it with all your strength whenever the situation gets unbearable? If someone important gave you a huge, heart-felt compliment, would you not recall that moment when you get down and your confidence is shaken? So it is with the promises of God.

Another important reason is that, unless we are mindful of God’s promises, we may miss them when they happen. We all have experienced not seeing something even though it was right there just because we are not looking for it. We may be surrounded by the sweetness and abundance of God’s promises but not see them because we are not looking for them. (And how can we be looking for them if we are not conscious of them?)

Have a blessed day as you meditate on whatever promises of God you have found in your Bible reading for today or desire to experience!