A meditation by Lesley Knudsen-DeWitt
God’s promises are true, trustworthy, life-giving, and hope-sustaining. Every day we, as a staff, have opportunities to minister God’s promises through words and prayers to encourage our congregation in their walk with Jesus. Let’s continue to ask the Holy Spirit to help us understand what word of promise from God’s heart could help meet their heart’s need in the moment so that they will draw closer to the Lord and trust Him for their need.
We also know that it is all of Jesus that His word brings His life to our hearts. In his book, Power and Peace in Prayer. R.A. Torrey talks about the power of the name of Jesus:
“It was a wonderful word about prayer that Jesus spoke to His disciples on the night before His crucifixion: “Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it.”
“Prayer in the name of Christ has power with God. God is well pleased with His Son Jesus Christ. He hears Him always, and He also hears always the prayer that is really in His name. There is a fragrance in the name of Christ that makes acceptable to God every prayer that bears it.”
“To pray in the name of Christ is similar to modern usage. If I go to a bank and hand in a check with my name signed on it, I ask of that bank in my own name. If I have money deposited in that bank the check will be cashed, if not it will not be.”
“If, however, I go to a bank with somebody else’s name signed to the check I am asking in his name and it does not matter whether I have money in that bank or any other, if the person whose name is signed to the check has money there the check will be cashed.”
“It is like going to the bank of Heaven when I go to God in prayer. I have nothing deposited there; I have absolutely no credit there. If I go in my own name, I will get absolutely nothing; but Jesus Christ has unlimited credit in Heaven and He has granted to me the privilege of going to the bank with His name on my checks.”
“To pray then in the name of Christ is to pray on the ground not of my credit but His; to renounce the thought that I have any claims on God whatever and approach Him on the ground of Christ’s claims. When I do approach God, not on the ground of my merit but on the ground of Christ’s merit, not on the ground of my goodness but on the ground of the atoning blood God will hear me.
Hebrews 10:19-24
“And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.
Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.”
We share God’s life and hope when we share and pray for God’s promises. We simply take these promises, spread them out before God in prayer, and share them in love, with the unwavering expectation that He will do what He has promised in His Word. God can be trusted to keep His promises in and through Christ.
Assurance: 2 Corinthians 1:20
For all of God’s promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding “Yes!” And through Christ, our “Amen” (which means “Yes”) ascends to God for his glory.
Fearful: Romans 8:15
For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.”
Security: Psalm 91:1-6
He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.”
Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler And the perilous pestilence. He shall cover you with His feathers, And under His wings, you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and buckler.
You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, Nor of the arrow that flies by day, Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.
He Cares: 1 Peter 5:7 Give God all your worries and cares, for he cares about you.
He is Near: Isaiah 43:1-2
But now, O Jacob, listen to the LORD who created you. O Israel, the one who formed you says,
“Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are mine.
When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you.
Courage: Psalm 18:1-3, 30-31
I love you, LORD; you are my strength. The LORD is my rock, fortress, and savior; my God is my rock, in whom I find protection. He is my shield, the power that saves me, and my place of safety. I called on the LORD, who is worthy of praise, and he saved me from my enemies.
God’s way is perfect. All the LORD’s promises prove true. He is a shield for all who look to him for protection. For who is God except the LORD? Who but our God is a solid rock?
A Bumper Sticker Said:
Leukemia survivor: Psalm 73:26
The promise they were leaning on through their sickness was this:
My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak,
but God remains the strength of my heart; He is mine forever.
God’s promises are true, trustworthy, life-giving, and hope-sustaining. They are His life breathed into each of us who hold them, share them, and trust in Him.
