You Promised!

"No power in the sky above or in the earth below - indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the Love of God that is revealed in Jesus Christ our Lord."

- St. Paul, Romans 8:39

"Don't complain about the way God answers your prayers… Your problem is not that God is unfaithful. Your problem is that you are spoiled."

- Donald Miller, "Blue Like Jazz"

Have you noticed that children have weapons they will sometimes use against their parents to get their way? Without question, at least in my house, one of the tools they had in their arsenal was… "Dad, you promised!"

"No, we're not going to SeaWorld tomorrow:"

"But Dad, you promised!”

"No, we're not going to the beach today!"

"But Dad, you promised!"

"No, I'm not playing "Barbies" with you right now!"

"But Dad, you promised!" (Really?)

I remember when the Cedar Fire hit our community in October 2003. That weekend I had promised my kids I would take them to Disneyland. But the entire county of San Diego was devastated. Hundreds of homes were lost, thousands of people displaced, over 200,000 acres were charred and burned. And in the midst of it all my young teenage son came up to me and asked, "Are we still going to Disneyland?" I replied, "Ahhh… we just experienced a fire storm of cataclysmic proportions." And Tyler said, "But Dad, you promised!"

You see, my son had come to believe that his father would not allow anything in heaven or on earth to get in the way of fulfilling a promise I made to him. That is the power a child has with a loving father! Why do you think God the Father has given us over 2000 promises in His Word? Listen…

Effective prayer is simply quoting God's promises back to Him.

It's the Apostle Paul, feeling alone and abandoned, in a Roman prison cell, whispering back to God in verse 39, "Father, You promised that nothing… absolutely nothing… not prison, not pain, not cancer, not divorce, not bankruptcy, not heartbreak… not anything in the whole world would keep me from experiencing your Love!" Hey, when you quote what your loving Heavenly Father promised you back to Him you are standing on solid ground! "God, you promised!"

In the biography of the great 19th century preacher, Charles Spurgeon, he tells the story of walking into the room of a woman who was dying. On a nightstand, next to her bed, was an open Bible that was all marked up. Next to verse after verse were the letters T&P, T&P, T&P. Spurgeon asked her, "What do the letters "T&P" mean?" She smiled and said, "That's every promise in God's Word that I Tried (T) and God Proved (P) it to be True… T&P!"

Friends, Your Father in Heaven loves to hear you quote His promises back to Him! When a young, inexperienced King David first stepped onto the throne of Israel the nation was surrounded by enemies and hostile armies way more powerful than his own. As his fear rose up, David dropped to his knees and reminded God of what He had promised him…

"And now, O Lord God, I am your servant; do as You have Promised concerning me and my family. Confirm it as a promise that will last forever."

- 2 Samuel 7:25

And God did! He established Israel and through his name gave us a Savior!

What promise do you need to remind your Father in Heaven of today? Are you feeling distant from Jesus? Do you feel like Jesus has forgotten you or has let a critical prayer go unanswered?

If you're feeling alone or afraid or confused, your job is to find a promise from God in His Word. His Job is to prove to you that it's true! "God, You Promised!... is a Prayer God will always answer!

Pastor Harry

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