Gratitude for God's promises

11/14/2021

This morning at church my Pastor suggested that we go home and Google “God’s promises”

We had an awesome sermon on Jeremiah 29:10-14 and I would certainly encourage you to spend some time in God’s Word this week studying that passage.

It made me start thinking, how many times have I heard about “God’s Promises”?

The first thing that comes to my mind is this song:

One of the things that gets me as a Christian is what I like to call “Christianese”.

Christianese: Words and phrases that we say inside the Church that someone from outside would scratch their heads at.

“The promises of God” can be one of these phrases.

What are God’s actual promises?

Google gave me several resources.

One article cites the 10 promises of God.
…The next list had 5.
Someone else came up with 52 promises of God, one for each week.
Another had 7 promises, one for every day.
Then there were 40 promises, that’s a Biblical number.
365 promises are listed in another article, I’m not sure what we are supposed to do on a leap year?
Biblegateway.com has an article on 5467 promises.

Then I found this, and I thought it was interesting:

How many promises did God give to man in the Bible? The following quote is taken from the Introduction to Dr. Herbert Lockyer's (1886-1984) timeless Christian classic (published in 1962), All The Promises Of The Bible…

“It has been computed that there are 30,000 Bible promises. No indication is given as to how this colossal number is reached. Altogether, there are 31,173 verses making up the Bible; 23,214 verses compromising the Old Testament, and 7,959 — the New Testament. Doubtless, this total of verses gave rise to the 30,000 — every verse being a promise.

The magazine Time, of Dec. 4, 1956, carried an item to the effect that schoolteacher Everett R. Storms, of Kitchener, Canada, reckoned the 30,000 figure to be off the mark. During his 27th reading of the Bible, this devout student tried to tally up the promises, a task which took him a year and a half. Storms [Everett R. Storms] came up with 7,487 promises by God to man, 2 by God the Father to God the Son, 991 by one man to another (such as the servants who promised to interpret King Nebuchadnezzar's dream), 290 by man to God, 21 promises were made by angels, one by man to an angel, and two were made by an evil spirit to the Lord. Satan made nine, as when he promised the world to Christ if He would fall down and worship him. Storms then gives us the grand total of 8,810 promises.

Scattered throughout the Bible are hundreds of definite explicit promises forming the category Peter names as "the exceeding great and precious promises" (II Peter 1:4).”

SOURCE: Dr. Herbert Lockyer, All The Promises Of The Bible, pg. 10; 1962

I’m not going to list all of God’s promises in this article, that is not today's purpose. I have a lot more research to do before I can do that! Instead, I want to point you in the direction that my Pastor did this morning.

My Pastor encouraged us to “Be thankful for God’s promises in our lives because those promises shout the truth that no one wants more for you than God does.”

That sentence speaks to my heart.

Here are 4 of the promises that I am thankful for this Holiday season: 

Promise #1: God is always with me —

Deuteronomy 31:6 (The Message) “Be strong. Take courage. Don’t be intimidated. Don’t give them a second thought because God, your God, is striding ahead of you. He’s right there with you. He won’t let you down; he won’t leave you.”

Promise #2: My God is kind and compassionate -

Isaiah 54:9-10 (The Message)
“This exile is just like the days of Noah for me:
    I promised then that the waters of Noah
    would never again flood the earth.
I’m promising now no more anger,
    no more dressing you down.
For even if the mountains walk away
    and the hills fall to pieces,
My love won’t walk away from you,
    my covenant commitment of peace won’t fall apart.”
    The God who has compassion on you says so.

Promise #3: Nothing can separate me from the love of God

Romans 8:38-39 (The Message)
I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.

This final one is a big one for me in this season that I am facing. I have been reminded over and over that He can be trusted. He always keeps His word.

Promise #4: God can be trusted

Hebrews 10:23 (The Message) Let’s keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going. He always keeps his word.

What are the promises that you are grateful to God for this season?

Please share the promises you are grateful for...

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