‘Sovereign Lord, you are God! Your covenant is trustworthy, and you have promised these good things to your servant’. (2 Samuel 7:28).
Two key variables define our walk as Christians, faith, and promise. Without a grip on these two our walk with Jesus will become slow and painstaking.
Why faith? The bible says, ‘without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him’. (Hebrew 11:6).
Now, we cannot seek God if we don’t have a promise to hold or behold and that is why faith and Promise are twin crutches for a strong walk with God.
Essentially, a strong faith in God is sustained by a Christian’s unflinching focus on the promise of God in whatever circumstance.
Commenting on how these two variables interplayed in Abraham’s classic walk with God, the bible says, “No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised” (Romans 4:20-21).
Thus, faith means putting your trust in God and having confidence that he will fulfill his promises.
Why did Abraham refuse to waver at the promise of God that he would be the father of many nations and that kings would descend from him even though, then without a son of his own?
Because Abraham had encountered a sterling quality of God in his walk with Him to know enough that God is a promise keeper.
Since the beginning of time, God has staked His reputation as a promise keeper and none of His promises have failed, as sure as no day passes without the rising of the sun and the going down of same.
The same God who said, ‘let there be light and there was light’, is the same God who made promises to Abraham that he would have a son, He is the same God who parted the Red Sea for Moses and saved the people of Israel.
He is the same today and forever and we are therefore able to keep faith in him because of His reputation as a promise keeper.
However, before we can dependably walk with the crutches of faith and promise we must have answered and passed the following questions personally for ourselves:
‘How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?’ (Romans 10:14).
Before we can understand the length and breadth of the deep reservoir of God’s promises for us, and before we can confidently step out to claim and receive them in faith, we must have meditated enough on the word of God to know the character of God.
Many preachers tell us about God but the most important question to ask is, have we become intimate enough with the word of God to know God personally?
To know God personally is to know His word, believe in the promises and act upon them with faith.
Therefore, meditating upon the word of God should be a very important aspect of our lives as we build our trust in His promise with faith.
Christians can overcome life’s challenges because they know the God they have come to believe.
Beyond the general knowledge of God as the creator of the universe, which the devils also know and therefore tremble in terror (James 2:19), there is a special revelation of faith and promise by the Holy Spirit to all who will walk in obedience and who come to God with childlike faith.
These are the ones able to reap the promises of God in full, and not in half measures.
This special revelation of faith and of God as a promise speaker emboldened the Apostle Paul to stake his life on the eternal promise of God saying:
‘For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless, I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day’. (2 Timothy 1:12).
What did Paul commit to God?
His entire life and his soul in the bank account of God for safe keeping.
Obviously, the Apostle was intimately familiar with the instruction of Jesus warning thus:
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal’. Matthew 6:19.
Taking a cue from Jesus’ warning, we should not be half measure Christians who are so carried away with the material promises of God as to lose our focus on the more important eternal promise which speaks to the salvation of our soul.
The patriarch Abraham leaned on the twin crutches of faith and promise to secure the full measures of earthly and eternal rewards from God by keeping his eyes on the promise keeper and not on the promises alone, and we should do likewise.
That was why he was able to pass the ultimate test on Mount Moriah with his son Isaac while securing a full measure of promise like no other.
We can therefore paraphrase the warning of Jesus here to suit the context of our discourse saying:
for what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world with his faith, and lose his own soul because he had his eyes on the promise rather than on faith in God, the promise keeper. (Mark 8:36)
Bible reading
Romans 10:5-14
