Have you ever been in a situation where someone makes a promise to do something good for you at some point in the future? Do you feel like thanking them when they make the promise, or even while waiting for the evidence of the promise? Or, does cynicism compel you to wait until the promise has been fulfilled before lavishing gratitude on the promisor?

Incidentally a number of us will thank someone who promises us something even before the evidence lands. If a friend promises to make you a cake for your party in the future, you’ll probably thank the person right then, and tell them how kind they are, even though you haven’t even seen the ingredients, not to talk of the cake. However, if the promisor is a human being, there is a chance that their promise may not be fulfilled. No matter how well-intentioned they might be, things can happen that may prevent them from fulfilling their promise.

Now what if the promisor is God Almighty? How do we react? Do we trust God enough to praise Him for His promises before they get to the fulfilment stage? Recently while reading Psalm 56, I realised that three times in that Psalm, the psalmist says, “I praise God for what He has promised” (Verses 4 and twice in verse 10).

From the context of this Psalm, it can be deduced that these promises had not yet come to pass. The preceding verse, verse 3 says “but when I am afraid, I will put my trust in You”. Then the second part of verse 4 says “I trust in God, so why should I be afraid? What can mere mortals do to me?” As I read this verses, I asked myself if I trusted God enough to praise and thank Him purely for His promises. You might have heard this quote, “Until God opens the next door, praise Him in the hallway.” Can we praise God in the hallway, even when all the doors are not only shut, but seem to be triple locked and barricaded?

2 Peter 1:4 (BSB) says, “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. Through these He has given us His precious and magnificent promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, now that you have escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.” A simpler translation, the CEV says, “God made great and marvellous promises, so His nature would become part of us. Then we could escape our evil desires and the corrupt influences of this world.”

There are a lot of beautiful and encouraging promises in God’s Living Word, The Bible, and these are worth reading and meditating on. As we do so, we can remember that, as 2 Corinthians 1:20 says, “For all the promises of God are “Yes” in Christ. And so through Him, our “Amen” is spoken to the glory of God.” This scripture is such a powerful scripture. It reminds me that if God could keep His promise to send Jesus, His only begotten Son (John 3:16), despite the immense cost of that promise, then what other promise could possibly be more challenging to keep? The answer is none, because there is no greater sacrifice than the life of God’s precious Son, Jesus. “Since He did not spare even His own Son but gave Him up for us all, won’t He also give us everything else?” (Romans 8:32, NLT).

Knowing this therefore, what can we do while waiting for these promises, in addition to studying God’s word and reminding ourselves of these promises? Psalm 105 gives us some ideas, “Sing praises to the Lord! Tell about his miracles. Celebrate and worship His holy name with all your heart. Trust the Lord and His mighty power.” (Verses 2-4, CEV). Praising and worshipping God enables us shift the focus from us and our weaknesses, to God and His powerful strength. It also draws us back into an atmosphere of joy, which can sometimes be hard to maintain when you have been waiting a long time for the fulfilment of a promise from God.

In the NLT, verse 4 is translated as “Search for the Lord and for His strength; continually seek Him.” We seek God continually by praying continually. We cannot do this half-heartedly though. Jeremiah 29:13 (ESV) says, “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” The key word there is seeking God Himself. Not prioritising His presents, but His presence; not prioritising His gifts, but Him as a gift in itself, the privilege and gift of intimate fellowship and communion with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Seeking God also gives us the power, grace, strength and fortification we need to escape our evil desires and worldly corrupt influences. These can include impatience, covetousness, greed, lust, pride, and the damaging desire to be independent of God or to place our will or timing over His.

As we seek Him, we can also seek His direction on what to do while waiting. In doing so, we will receive wisdom and discernment to know whether delays to the fulfilment of His promises in our lives are as a result of our own actions or inactions, spirirual forces, or as a result of His own timing. For “God has made everything beautiful in its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end” (Ecclesiastes 3:11, NLT). In Isaiah 60:22b, God says, “in its time I will accomplish it quickly” (BSB), or in the NLT, “At the right time, I, the LORD, will make it happen.”

Psalm 56:5 of the CEV translation says “Remember his miracles and all his wonders and His fair decisions.” We can remember God’s miracles and wonders by sharing and listening to testimonies of His good works in our lives and the lives of others. This particular translation of verse five really spoke to me. Especially because of that last line, which exhorts us to remember God’s fair decisions. This means that God’s decisions, both the substance of them and the timings, are fair, just, proper, good. I try to remind myself of this as often as I can, because as Genesis 18:25b says, “Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right?”

Knowing this, we can continue to walk in a path that pleases God, “For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favour and honour. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly” (Psalm 84:11, ESV).

I pray that in our waiting seasons, as we hold out for the fulfilment of God’s promises in our lives, we will learn to continually praise Him for who He is, and for His exceedingly great, magnificent and precious promises to us who believe. May we learn to look to Christ, and in doing so, remember that all the promises of God are yes in Him. Christ came at God’s perfect, appointed time. In the same way, our promises will also come to fulfilment at God’s perfect, appointed time. May we receive the grace to keep on trusting and standing on the promises of God. Amen and Amen.

Image source here.

… And a hymn to go along with it, Standing on the promises of God!