Renovating Your MindSample

God does not tell us to ask for things that He does not plan to give us. He does not stir our hearts into action just to leave those desires wanting. He does not lead us down paths that will just end in failure. And He does not speak in such a way that we cannot understand what He is saying. In fact, the Lord declares to all of us, “I publicly proclaim bold promises. I do not whisper obscurities in some dark corner so no one can understand what I mean. And I did not tell the people of Israel to ask Me for something I did not plan to give. I, the Lord, speak only what is true and right” (Isaiah 45:19, NLT1996).

God openly proclaims bold promises to all of mankind because He intends to keep them. Essentially, He is challenging each one of us to stand on His Word and see if they come to pass just as He has promised. Do you need wisdom? Ask for it (James 1:5). Are you spiritually dry? Ask for the Holy Spirit to refresh you (Luke 11:13). Do you need help in your time of need? Come boldly to His throne of grace and ask for help (Hebrews 4:16). The psalmist caught on to this remarkable aspect of faith as he issued to us the very same challenge in Psalm 34:8: “taste and see that the Lord is good.” 

I am convinced that the lack of power and strength in the church today derives specifically from a lack of knowing and believing in God’s promises. I mean, how can we ever be expected to pray for the miraculous if we do not have His promises as the fuel for our petitions? How can we ever stand in the storms of life if we do not have His promises as the anchor of our hope? 

Believer, understand that God desires for us to hold Him to His promises. He longs for His children to exercise their faith so much so, that He has not only spoken those promises through the prophets of old, but He has also thoroughly documented them in the Bible so that we can stand on them whenever we are in need. Knowing this, believing this, trusting in this, we will be emboldened to pray the very promises of God with the absolute expectation of them coming to pass, and we will walk confi­dently through the valley of the shadow of death fearing no evil because we know that He is with us (Psalm 23).