The Great and Precious Promises of God

"Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust."
2 Peter 1:4

 

 

In 2014, my heart was hurting. Rejection always hurts and as a young 15 years old, unsure and insecure, I was looking for comfort. 

In May of that year, our family attended the highlight of our year: a family conference! Encouraging speakers, reunions with friends from past years, and programs for all ages; our family loved that conference, but for me, one speaker would change my life. 

Katherine Allen Ritchie.

Her message?

My identity in Christ.

Who I am in Christ. What Christ says about me. 

The sweet speaker shared her own story of rejection, the pain of losing her older sister when a drunk driver jumped a curb while their family was serving as missionaries in Russia, her own injuries incurred from the accident, and more. 

My heart was grieved as I listened to her story, but it was her message of truth that struck me the most. As a young teenager looking for identity and hurt over years of rejections, that message was designed for me.

The promises of God that she reminded me of were mine for the keeping and have only become more precious and applicable as the years have passed.

Application.

I typed out the promises that had resonated the most with me and pasted them on the wall around my bed. One night as I lay sobbing over loneliness and the hurt of rejection, I just turned to my wall and began quoting those promises over to myself. 

The comfort of His promises.

In the back of my Bible, you would see this....

I had picked my favorite promises and had written them in my bible to be readily reminded.

• I am Beautiful - Isaiah 62:3 "Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God."

• I am Precious and Honored - Isaiah 43:4 "Since thou wast precious in My sight, thou has been honorable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee and people for thy life."

• I am Loved - Galatians 2:20 "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live: yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I love by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me."

• I am Accepted - Ephesians 1:6 "To the praise and the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the beloved." 

• I am Chosen - John 15:16 "Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you..."

• I am Secure - Psalm 18:33 "He maketh my feet like hind's feet and setteth me upon my high places."

• I am Delighted in - Zephaniah 3:17 "The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; He will save, He will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing."

• I am His - Isaiah 43:1 "...I have called thee by thy name, thou art Mine."

• I Glorify God - Psalm 50:15 "And call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me."

• I am God's Friend - John 15:15 "...but I have called you friends."

• I am Not Forgotten - Isaiah 49:15 "...yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget you."
  
  

Do you believe that all these are true about YOU?

Do you believe that His love extends past mistakes and sins? Do you see yourself the way your Heavenly Father sees you? 

The promises of God are not small to them that love Him. His love extends above and beyond all that, we could ask or think. His comfort sustains and renews.  

His promises are for YOU!!!!!

"For all the promises of God in Him are yea, and in Him Amen, unto the glory of God by us."

2 Corinthians 1:20

He Heard Me!

Tears rolled down my face until caught by my hand, covering my mouth to smother the sobs that came bursting from my full heart, aching with a hurt none could cure.

I have cried a lot over the last two months. Cried in hurt. I cried as I have watched God shut doors that I wanted to remain open. Cried with loneliness. I cried as I was asked to sacrifice to the Lord long-held dreams. I cried as I have experienced new meanings of pain. Cried as I was enveloped in the loving arms, that reminded of His everlasting love.

The last year has been a refining year, but over the last few months it intensified and at times my heart called for relief through tears.

One of my favorite scripture passages for an overwhelmed heart is:

“...when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I.”

Psalm 61:1

There have been times when I have repeated that phrase to myself. What comfort and assurance!

Even in the pain of my Father's refining fire, I have found new meaning in His love. He has come so close. In my pain, He has put His arms around me and promised me peace. I have had a renewed vision of His love for me. I have seen my value to Christ. He lived 33 1/2 years perfectly and died a horrendous death on a cross for me! He would have gone through all that even if I was the only human creature alive that needed salvation! Even now, He is praying for me, cheering me on. Supporting me through the dark valleys, the challenges I face, and holding me through the tearful nights.

Life's valleys can be long and hard, but they are only seasons. Some seasons are longer than others, but they are all just seasons and on the other side of winter is always spring. New hope and new life.

Last week, I felt like I had reached the top of a mountain after a very long valley.

I was reading my Bible and although not looking for any particular passage, I ended up flipping open to Psalm 40. The first 3 verses struck me in a way I will never forget.

“I waited patiently for the Lord: and He inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And He hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord.”

Psalm 40:1-3

He HEARD me!

He brought me UP!

He brought me OUT!

He SET me on my feet again!

He ESTABLISHED my path!

He gave me a new SONG!

This is ME!

As I was thinking over the verses again this morning, I thought about mire. A miry pit is what the princes of King Zedekiah put Jeremiah into, with the reason of not liking Jeremiah's message of the coming judgment; in the form of enslavement to the Babylonians (Jeremiah 38) Scripture says that Jeremiah sank in the mire. I see mire almost like quicksand, the more you struggle, the more you sink.

In the miry pits of life, I cry to the Lord and He hears me! He always hears me. He brings me up, out of the pit, and sets me on the path. I pictured the Pilgrim, pulled out of the mire, and set on the road, in clean, fresh robes, no sign of the past filth. He sets the Pilgrim on the road, shines a light on the next step, and sends him on his way with...

A new SONG.

He puts a new song in my mouth. A song of deliverance. A song of hope. A song that many shall hear and it shall turn their hearts to the King. They will hear it and fear and shall trust in the Lord.

It is a song of testimony.

Each one of us has been in miry pits and has been drawn out and established on the path. So, write your song. Your song matters. It is a testimony to God's goodness in your life. Don't hold back singing your song out of fear.

One of my new favorite things to do in one-on-one prison ministry is to ask them for a story of when God showed Himself strong in their life recently. What am I doing? I am asking to hear their song. I love it!

If you are in the pit right now, God hears you.

If you are reestablished on the path, write your song.

God heard me, He brought me up out the miry pit and established my path and gave me a new song.

To Him be the glory!

The Name of the Lord

I was sitting at the kitchen table in the lovely little apartment where the four of us girls were staying during our second week of prison ministry. It was, Saturday, our "day off", and we had enjoyed the rare opportunity to sleep until we woke up and I was savoring my coffee while I opened my Bible. As our parting blessing over the precious ladies, we had spent the previous week with, Faith had read Psalm 20. I had been struck by its beauty and peace and on this particular morning opened and began in Psalm 20.

"The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble; the name of the God of Jacob defend thee;

2 Send thee help from the sanctuary, and strengthen thee out of Zion;

3 Remember all thy offerings, and accept thy burnt sacrifice; Selah.

4 Grant thee according to thine own heart, and fulfill all thy counsel.

5 We will rejoice in thy salvation, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners: the Lord fulfill all thy petitions.

6 Now know I that the Lord saveth his anointed; he will hear him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand.

7 Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the Lord our God.

8 They are brought down and fallen: but we are risen, and stand upright.

9 Save, Lord: let the king hear us when we call."

Verse 7 struck me and I got thinking about the "name of the Lord". I began thinking about all the purposes of God's name. So I began in my concordance and wrote down all the uses of the Lord's name I could find. I found 15!

15 Uses of the Lord's Name:

1. We declare it-Psalm 22:22 "I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee."

2. We praise it-Psalm 138:2 "I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name."

3. We call upon it-Psalm 105:1 "O give thanks unto the Lord; call upon his name: make known his deeds among the people."

4. We honor it-Matthew 6:9 "After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name."

5. We trust in it-Matthew 12:21 "And in his name shall the Gentiles trust."

6. We fear it-Malachi 4:2 "But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall."

7. We ask in it-John 14:13 "And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son."

8. We gather together in it-Matthew 18:20 "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."

9. We are strong in it-Acts 3:16 "And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all."

10. We do miracles in it-Mark 9:39 "But Jesus said, Forbid him not: for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me."

11. We are persecuted for it- Luke 21:12 "But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake."

12. We work in it-Colossians 3:17 "And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him."

13. We are kept in it-John 17:12 "While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled."

14. We are called by it-John 10:3 "To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out."

15. We hide in it-Proverbs 18:10 "The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe."