We Love the Promises of God

We simply Love the promises of God. They are so encouraging. In Sunday School, we used to sing,

“Every promise in the book is mine,

every chapter every verse every line.

All the blessings of his love divine,

every promise in the book is mine.”

And the Lord will be your guide at all times; in dry places, he will give you water in full measure, and will make strong your bones; and you will be like a watered garden, and like an ever-flowing spring. And your sons will be building again the old waste places: you will make strong the bases of old generations: and you will be named, He who puts up the broken walls, and, He who makes ready the ways for use. (Isaiah 58:11-12)

What wonderful, encouraging words. Shouldn’t we all just be really happy all the time? Why are so many Christians unhappy and down cast? Maybe we’ve missed something. Let’s look at another blessing in the same chapter. Verse 9 says.

Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am.

IF

thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;

Something that I don’t recall hearing very much about is the part that comes after the “if”. Every promise that I have found in God’s Word has an “if” of some kind, but we are really inclined to highlight the promise and ignore the condition.

News Flash: God doesn’t ignore them.

God is not vengeful and mean! He doesn’t just want to make us unhappy for some sadistic pleasure. God wants to give us the blessings, every one. No loving father will reward a child for bad behavior. Our Heavenly Father desires us to be like his Son, for our pleasure. He is eager to bless us as we learn to follow Jesus example.