Morning By Morning #119

Remember your word to your servant,
for you have given me hope.

Psalm 119:49

From the pen of Charles Spurgeon:

Whatever your special need may be, a promise may readily be found in the Bible to meet that need. Are you weak and weary because your road is rough? Then here is the promise: “He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak” (Isa. 40:29). So when you read such a promise, take it to the great Promiser and ask Him to fulfill His own word.

Are you seeking after Christ and thirsting for closer communion with Him? If so, then this promise shines like a star upon you: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (Matt. 5:6). Take that promise to the throne continually and do not plead for anything else. Just go to God over and over again with this: “Lord, You have promised; therefore, ‘Do as you promised’” (2 Sam. 7:25).

Are you distressed due to sin in your life and burdened with the heavy load of your iniquities? Then listen to these words: “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions…and remembers your sins no more” (Isa. 43:25). Since you have no merit of your own as a basis to plead His pardon, plead His written-down covenants and He will perform them.

Are you afraid of not being able to endure to the end after having thought of yourself as a child of God? Do you fear, even as a child of His, that ultimately you will be proven nothing but an outcast? If that is your fear, take this word of grace to His throne and plead it: “Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed” (Isa. 54:10).

If you have lost the sweet sense of the Savior’s presence and are seeking Him with a sorrowful heart, remember these promises: “Return to me, and I will return to you” (Mal. 3:7); and “For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with deep compassion I will bring you back” (Isa. 54:7).

Whatever your fears or wants, feast your faith on God’s own words. Then return to the Bank of Faith with a check signed by your Father’s own hand, saying to Him, “Remember your word to your servant, for you have given me hope.”

From the pen of Jim Reimann:

Sometimes it may seem a little presumptuous on our part to stand before God’s throne and say to Him, as King David did, “Do as you promised.” It sounds presumptuous even for a king, doesn’t it? And perhaps all the more outrageous for us!

Yet it is exactly what the Lord would have us do. His Word declares, “You do not have, because you do not ask God” (James 4:2 – 3); “Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession” (Ps. 2:8); and “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name” (John 15:16).

I thank You, Father, that You are not only a promise-making God, but also a promise-keeping God.