Hold onto the Promises

This past year was full of learning how to trust God while pushing through hard circumstances. I need to worship God and hold onto the promises He’s given me. He tells me who He is. He tells me who I am. I do not need to focus all my thoughts on my failures or my circumstances but need to lift up my eyes to the one who shelters me, provides for me and encourages me. “Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (Jas 4:7, emphasis mine). My job is to submit myself to God. By doing so, I automatically resist the devil and he has to flee. “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength...” (Isa 30:15). Right now, I am not to fight but to rest. (Have to admit, resting is really challenging) I am to focus my eyes on God, to be still and to remember who He is (Ps 46:10). Resting in God’s presence is more powerful than we know.

I was in a funk a few weeks ago and was talking with a friend about it. My friend commented that sometimes we just need to have an experience that allows our head knowledge to become heart knowledge. We need to experience the Bible and know it is true. The next morning I was listening to the radio and one phrase kept jumping out at me. “Hold onto the promises. Hold onto the promises.” I have no idea what the rest of the song was saying because I could not get past those four words. I pulled out the different promises God gave me. Soon I found myself praising God for His faithfulness and goodness. I was not focusing on my circumstances or emotions but on who God is. My circumstances did not change, but it is a lot easier to have joy when I focus on the One who gives joy.

Before this year, I never knew you could have a promise from God. I didn’t even know how to go about getting one. Then someone told me to ask God. What a brilliant idea. Ask God. It didn’t seem like it should work. It didn’t seem like God would want to give me a promise, let alone have a conversation with me about one.

Then my heart started to change. I looked back at the verses that always stood out to me, and one day I took hold of them for myself. I started to believe God is who He says He is. The more I surrendered to God, the more I learned from Him. I began to learn God’s voice. I began to recognize that when words jump off the page at me and grab my heart God is speaking with me. When I need encouragement, He wants to be that for me. When I need financial provision, He wants to be that for me. When I need to know I am beautiful or have worth, He wants to tell me and show me I do (Isa 62:1-6). I believe God gives us a need or a challenge so that He can be the answer to that problem. He gives us different desires so He can be the one to fulfill them.

So, does this mean I did not have promises before? No. If anything, I always had them. I just wasn’t looking for them. I wasn’t ready to take hold of them yet. I couldn’t handle it yet, despite my belief that I could handle them. However, I would have seen the promises of God as something I wasn’t living up to. I would have to earn them and be good enough for them. I was not willing to receive them and frankly did not want anything from Him. I did not trust Him as I thought I did.

God has given us many promises. His Word is full of them. There are promises about who God is and promises about who we are, about our past, present and future. I have promises about all of these. I even have promises about my name. Many of them are in Isaiah. I have no idea what it will look like for the promises to be fulfilled but it is fun talking with God about them. As we talk about them, he prepares me for receiving the promises. If I think I understand one of them, He shows me a deeper meaning and I am in awe of God all over again. He grows me in maturity and in faith and trust. I am learning to trust God, to believe He is who He says He is. If I am not grounded in who God says He is, I cannot fully help others be so. If I do not know who God says I am, I cannot fully help others find who God says they are.

This past week we talked about Scripture at my discipleship group. One of the leaders said (paraphrased), “The Bible is full of treasures just waiting for us to find them. It isn’t that they are hidden from us but hidden for us. They are for us to seek out. It is like a treasure hunt.” There is joy in finding treasure. If you are willing to seek it out, you will find it (Mat 7:7).

What are the promises God’s given you? He’ll highlight them for you when you read them. They’ll jump off the page and grab your heart. The words of a song will stick with you for weeks, but in a different way than when you merely have a song stuck in your head. The words of a friend will resonate deeply with your heart. God speaks in so many ways. His words bring peace and joy and encouragement.

Dare to ask God for a promise to hold onto. Let the treasure hunt begin.