January 23 | His Great and Precious Promises
2 Peter 1:4, “Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.”
Did you know that God has a promise for every situation you face in life? God has literally given a promise of prosperity and blessing for every hardship you will ever face.
Every trial and test the believer goes through can be seen as a chance for God to keep His Word!
Think about it like this — if you bought a new car and it came with a manufacturer’s “bumper to bumper warranty” for the first 100,000 miles, it would cover any problems within that time. If, during that time frame, your transmission went bad, you could bring the car back to the dealer because of the warranty. The same is true concerning God’s promises. Whenever we face “breakdowns” in life that need repair, we can go to God, confidently, based on His promises to “fix us.” God’s promises are His warranty for our life.
Corrie ten Boom said, “When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don't throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer.” We need to trust Jesus the same way He trusted the Father. When the Father showed Him that He needed to cross the lake, Jesus was able to sleep through the storm because He knew nothing could stop the promise from coming to pass (Luke 8:22-25).
Peter calls these kind of Bible promises “very great and precious,” because they are powerful and given to us from the will of God. When we act upon the promises of God, we “participate in the divine nature” and “escape the corruption in the world,” which basically means we go through life “dancing with the divine” and avoiding the despair of the godless.
At the same time, God’s promises are not like “wishes” from a genie in a bottle. All the promises require faith and perseverance on our part; and, some promises will not fully come to pass until we reach heaven. Also, some promises will be fulfilled in different ways than we imagined. No matter what happens in life, we can find hope in God’s promises and trust the God who gave them!
Reflection
Action
- Search the Bible for three promises, today, that relate to a need in your life.
- Pray for God to fulfill His promises, His way and in His time (i.e., “surrender to His will”).
- Live, today, with hope in God, because He will always keep His Word!