God’s Promises Are Perfectly Reliable

The dictionary defines the word promise as “a declaration or assurance that one will do something or that a particular thing will happen.“ The other week I promised my wife I would take the car out and get an oil change. Well, somewhere along the line I got distracted with some other activity and forgot. I didn’t follow through on something I had assured I would take care of and her response was disappointment.

Fortunately, this wasn’t a life and death situation and I was able to earn her forgiveness by later taking care of the task. But the point of this is that she trusted me to follow through with what I had promised and when I didn’t she was disappointed. We probably can all think of people in our lives who are good at keeping their promises and some that aren’t. Human nature tends to get in the way of people following through on their promises, whether by negligence, forgetfulness or uncontrolled circumstances. Being on the receiving end of a broken promise can hurt and undermine our trust in others.

Perfectly Reliable In light of these experiences throughout our lives it’s possible you may also struggle with believing in God’s promises that are revealed throughout the Bible. But let me assure you, nothing could be further from the truth. While we as humans are fallible and don’t always do what we say we’ll do; God is always faithful in following through on His promises. Consider this verse from 2 Peter:

“And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.” (verse 1:4).

In this verse, Peter tells us that the promises of God are based upon His glory and excellence (or virtue) and therefore perfectly reliable because God would never compromise His glory and excellence. How awesome is that! For every follower of Christ this verse should serve as a “rock and foundation” upon which to stand when you go thru difficult times or for the joy you experience during times of prosperity. God will fulfill His promises!

Surveying the Bible, there are over 4000 specific promises that God makes to man. I would encourage you, to write down God’s promises as you come across them in your daily reading. Here are seven to get you started:

1. God promises to be our everlasting joy and satisfaction. The Bible says: “And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (NASB). The same God who created the Heavens and the earth, who at His disposal are infinite resources, promises to provide for your every need; companionship, love, and salvation thru Jesus Christ. This does not mean the things our world considers important such as wealth, power, fame and beauty.
2. God has promised that His grace is sufficient for us. (2 Corinthians 12:9). “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” I like the way that Charles Spurgeon sums this up. He says, “This sufficiency is declared without any limiting words, and therefore I understand the passage to mean that the grace of our Lord Jesus is sufficient to uphold you, sufficient to strengthen you, sufficient to comfort you, sufficient to make your trouble useful to you, sufficient to enable you to triumph over it, sufficient to bring you out of it, sufficient to bring you out of ten thousand like it, sufficient to bring you home to heaven.”
3. God has promised that His children will not be overtaken with temptation. Instead, He assures us that a way of escape will be provided. This promise is recorded in I Corinthians 10:13. Jude wrote: “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with exceeding joy” (Jude v 24, NASB). Darius, King of the Medes, said to Daniel, “Thy God whom thou serves continually, he will deliver thee” (Daniel 6:16). He did deliver Daniel from the den of lions.
4. God has promised us victory over death. He first resurrected Jesus by way of assuring our resurrection. Peter said: “God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it.” (Acts 2:32, NIV). Paul wrote to the Corinthians: “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures” (I Corinthians 15:3,4). Later on he adds: “but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (I Corinthians 15:57).
5. God has promised that all things work together for good to those who love and serve Him faithfully (Romans 8:28). God’s sovereignty and ability to manage every aspect of our lives is demonstrated in the fact that all things work together for good to those who love God, though we must face the sufferings of this present time (Romans 8:18). God is able to even make those sufferings work together for our good and His good.
6. God has promised that those who believe in Jesus and are baptized for the forgiveness of sins will be saved. “He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned” (Mark 16:16).
7. God has promised His people eternal life. “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give to them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand” (John 10:27,28).

Take a few moments and reflect on these promises. Which one speaks to your heart at this moment? Write it down and review this promise each day. Rest in the peace of knowing that God is faithful in all He promises.