60 Seconds – The promises of God

George W. Truett, while serving as pastor of First Baptist Church, in Dallas, Texas, told his congregation, “The New Testament speaks of three precious things: ‘The precious blood of Christ'( 1 Peter 1:19); ‘like precious faith’ ( 2 Peter 1:1), and “exceedingly great and precious promises’ ( 2 Peter 1:4).”

Everek R. Storms, successful author and an active layman in the Missionary Church, in an article called, “Standing On The Promises,” stated, “The Holy Scriptures contain a grand total of 8,810 promises. How do I know? I counted them…There are 7,487 promises that God has given to man. This is about 85 per cent of all the promises in the Bible.” Peter referred to them as “exceedingly great and precious promises,” meaning “rich and wonderful blessings He promised” (TLB).

A missionary endeavored successfully to teach faith in prayer to his converts. He told them he would not accept any prayer request they brought to him, unless it was accompanied with a promise they had found in the Bible that matched the nature of their request. In Psalm 112, the Psalmist speaks of the person “who fears the Lord, who delights greatly in His commandments,” verse one. Then, in verse seven, we read, “His heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord.” The word “steadfast” means, “grounded solidly on God’s promises.” In 2 Corinthians 1:20, Paul speaks of “all the promises of God.” “Promises” here means, “to summons, to proclaim and announce, to undertake, to do, or give something.” God’s promises summon us to proclaim them as ours.

A. W. Tozer stated, “Always remember this, that God is always bigger than anything God can say, because words are inadequate to express God and what God can do. Any promise that God ever made, God has to over fulfill it. The reason being that God is so great, and His heart is so kind, and His desire is so intense and tremendous, that language doesn’t express it. Not the Greek, not the English, and no language expresses God – it can’t. If language could contain God, the language would be equal to God. So, everything God says in the Bible must be understood to be a little greater than what He says, even as God is greater than language.”

Joshua 23:14, “Not one of all the good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled.” (NIV).