God Is A Promise Keeper
Download MP3Welcome to a place of peace, hope, and divine encouragement. This is Joy in Every Step with your host, beloved preacher, retired teacher, and faithful through the valleys or dancing on the mountaintops, Sarita's voice will guide you back to his promises step by step. So open your heart, settle your spirit, and take the next step in faith with joy in every step.
Sarita Bernadette:Hi, I'm Sarita Bernadette and welcome back to another episode of Joy in Every Step. I'm glad you're here. During the previous episode we talked about true hope, biblical hope. True hope or biblical hope is built on God's promises. When the Apostle Paul refers to the God of hope who will make the people abound in hope, we know it's because God keeps his promises.
Sarita Bernadette:His promises give us strength, encouragement, and clarity. They give us what we need to get through life. We can abound in hope as we understand, recall, and truly trust in him. A promise made by the Lord is indeed a binding declaration. His promises emanate from his unchanging character.
Sarita Bernadette:The Word tells us in Numbers twenty three and nineteen, God is not a human being that he should lie or a mortal that he should change his mind. Has he promised and will he not do it? Has he spoken and will he not fulfill it? God's covenants with his people are lasting ones, beloved. God cannot and will not go back on his promises.
Sarita Bernadette:They are unlike human promises. His promises are sovereign and are sure to be fulfilled. The binding nature of his promises are not based on human performance but on his nature as the ultimate promise keeper. In the last episode I mentioned the fact that there are thousands and thousands of promises in God's word. So today we're going to zero in on just nine of those promises.
Sarita Bernadette:They're the same ones that I mentioned in that last episode. First, God promises to love us. First John four sixteen So we have known and believed the love that God has for us, God is love and those who abide in love abide in God and God abides in them. Psalm 136 is a tribute to the Lord's enduring love. Here's verses one-four: Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.
Sarita Bernadette:Oh give thanks to the God of gods, for his steadfast love endures forever. O give thanks to the Lord of lords, for his steadfast love endures forever. Who alone does great wonders, for his steadfast love endures forever. The refrain for his steadfast love endures forever is repeated 26 times. I encourage you to read it in its entirety when you get a chance.
Sarita Bernadette:That refrain is a moving reminder of God's unwavering nature. Romans eight verses thirty eight and thirty nine is an example of what our response to the Lord's love should be. You've heard it before. For I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. God promises to provide for us beloved.
Sarita Bernadette:Philippians four nineteen you know it and my God will fully satisfy every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. God promises to be our refuge. Refuge meaning a secure and safe dwelling place. Psalm 91 verses one and two. You who live in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shadow of the Almighty, will say to the Lord, my refuge and my fortress, God in whom I trust.' Many of us are familiar with that Psalm, Psalm 91.
Sarita Bernadette:It's an amazing testament to God's covering and assurance of his protection. I encourage you to read it and even commit it to memory if you are able. God is a promise keeper. He promises to be our strength. Isaiah 4one 10 Do not fear for I am with you.
Sarita Bernadette:Do not be afraid for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with my victorious right hand. God promises.
Sarita Bernadette:God promises to be our strength. We don't have to be our own strength. God is right there, beloved. God promises to restore our joy. Life's hardships and our own mistakes can zap our joy.
Sarita Bernadette:Psalm fifty one and twelve reads, Restore to me the joy of your salvation and sustain in me a willing spirit. Then the psalmist testifies about how the Lord actually does that and goes on to say in Psalm 9four 19, When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy. God promises to sustain us, beloved. Psalm 5five 22 Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you. He will never permit the righteous to be moved.
Sarita Bernadette:Also in Isaiah 40 six:four he says, I love this, Even to your old age I am he even when you turn gray I will carry you. I have made and I will bear I will carry and save. God is doing the work. He is sustaining us. He also promises to guide us beloved.
Sarita Bernadette:Psalm 30 two:eight I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go. I will counsel you with my eye upon you. He's watching. And in Psalm 1nineteen ten5, I love this one, Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. God promises to always be with us.
Sarita Bernadette:Deuteronomy 30 one:six Be strong and bold have no fear or dread of them because it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. Beloved, when we're up against tough situations, God is telling us he is right there with us. We should have no fear or dread. Joshua one and eight says, I hereby command you, my Lord, be strong and courageous.
Sarita Bernadette:Do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. That's a promise, friends. He promises us his peace, his peace. He says in John fourteen twenty seven, peace I leave with you my peace I give to you I do not give it to you as the world gives do not let your hearts be troubled and do not let them be afraid. Philippians four and seven And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Sarita Bernadette:You see beloved God's peace is supernatural. When we cast our cares and our concerns on him we get a calm that cannot be affected by our circumstances. It's not that we ignore them, but we can look at what's going on and declare that he is still God. We can acknowledge what's going on and know that he is right there with us. The verse tells us that his peace protects our hearts and our minds against anxiety and worry.
Sarita Bernadette:Beloved, God is a promise keeper and we're told in the Bible that we are to remind God of his promises. That part's important and it's not because he doesn't remember. God is not forgetting anything. The act of reminding God of his promises helps us as believers. It acknowledges God's impeccable character.
Sarita Bernadette:It refocuses our minds on the promise and away from the problem. It strengthens our faith, and it encourages us to be disciplined and persistent in our prayer lives. Let's revisit Nehemiah for better understanding and to kind of pull this together. You may recall Nehemiah. I mentioned him in a previous episode.
Sarita Bernadette:He was the Jewish leader and the prophet who, after hearing about the Jews returning to Jerusalem after they were exiled in Babylon, he heard about what was going on, and he knew that they found the Wall Of Jerusalem there in ruins and the gates even burned down. See the wall had served as protection from the enemies for the people of Israel and the wall was necessary in order for the people to worship in peace once again. Nehemiah heard this and he was saddened by the news about the wall so he fasted and he prayed. Nehemiah one verses five through 10 read: I said, O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments. Let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for your servants, the Israelites, confessing the sins of the Israelites which we have sinned against you.
Sarita Bernadette:Both I and my family have sinned. We have offended you deeply, failing to keep the commandments. We failed to keep the statutes and the ordinances that you commanded Moses, your servant. Verse eight: Remember the word that you commanded Moses your servant. If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples.
Sarita Bernadette:But if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are under the farthest skies I will gather them from there and bring them to the place where I have chosen to establish my name. Verse 10, They are your servants and your people whom you redeemed by your great power and your strong hand. Nehemiah God of the promise he'd made to Moses regarding the Israelites. Nehemiah went on to ask the king, as you know, for permission to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild the wall there. And the king agreed and sent him off to Jerusalem to recruit and head up a whole construction crew to rebuild the city's walls.
Sarita Bernadette:I truly believe the courage, the faith, and the leadership that Nehemiah showed throughout the mission stemmed from the fact that he believed God was a promise keeper. When you look at the way he prayed and the way he organized that work, you see a man who knew his God was faithful. When you trust that God's promises are true and irrevocable, the way you pray changes. Have you ever heard the expression act like you know? That expression is used to motivate one to behave as though you're familiar with a particular fact or truth.
Sarita Bernadette:It can be interpreted as either an encouragement or a challenge. Act like you know God to be a promise keeper, beloved. Act like you know. In Nehemiah, remember the Lord who is great and awesome. Then in Nehemiah five nineteen he writes, Remember me with favor, my God, for all I have done for these people.
Sarita Bernadette:I believe Nehemiah's prayers reminding God of his promises serve to renew his hope and even give him inspiration as the project progressed. After the wall was finished, the people came together to fast and to pray. They confessed their sins before the Lord, and let me just say here it was a lengthy confession. It went on for a while. They told it all.
Sarita Bernadette:But in verses seven and eight of the ninth chapter we read, You are the Lord, the God who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and gave him the name Abraham. And you found his heart faithful before you and made with him a covenant to give his descendants the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite, and the Gergeshite and you have fulfilled your promise for you are righteous. They remind the Lord that he is faithful in keeping his promises. Yes, we messed up, they say, but we know that you promised to always love us and provide for us. We know that you promised to be our refuge and our strength.
Sarita Bernadette:You promised to sustain us and restore our joy. You promised to always be with us and to guide us. And you promised us your peace. What has he promised you, beloved? Psalm one hundred forty five and thirteen, the B clause, says, The Lord always keeps his promises.
Sarita Bernadette:He is gracious in all he does. Second Corinthians one and twenty. I love this one. For all the promises of God in him are yes and in him, amen, to the glory of God through us. There is joy in knowing God keeps his promises.
Sarita Bernadette:You've been listening to Joy in Every Step. I'm Sarita Bernadette, and I'm grateful you chose to spend some time here with me. You can find Joy in Every Step wherever you listen to your podcasts and give us a follow there. Do check out the website at joyineverystep.org.
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