Promises, Promises
So the Lord gave Israel all the land he had sworn to give their ancestors, and they took possession of it and settled there. The Lord gave them rest on every side, just as he had sworn to their ancestors. Not one of their enemies withstood them; the Lord gave all their enemies into their hands. Not one of all the Lord’s good promises to Israel failed; every one was fulfilled. Joshua 21:43-45 (New International Version, NIV) emphasis mine
God’s promises never fail. God will do what God said He would do. Just as He did for Israel, He will do for us. He is faithful to His Word. To see His promises come to pass, there are some things we must do.
Believe. Before we can experience the promises of God, we must believe that what God said is true and that He is faithful to do it. Without faith, we cannot inherit what God has promised to give us. Faith is how we receive the promises of God.
Wait. The promises of God will come, but they will come in the timing of the Lord. This may not be the timing we want. We are often impatient, but the timing of God is always perfect. It may not be on our timetable, but He is never late. We must use patience to obtain the promises of God.
We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised. Hebrews 6:12 (New International Version, NIV)
When we receive God’s promises by faith and wait patiently for God’s perfect timing, we get everything God said He would do for us. God is trustworthy and true. If a promise does not manifest, it is on us- we didn’t stand in faith or we weren’t patient and gave up on it too soon. Practically every unfulfilled promise can be traced back to those two things.
Nearly every promise given in Scripture took time to materialize. Abraham had to wait for Isaac. Israel had to wait to leave Egypt. Then they had to wait to enter the promised land. From Genesis to Revelation, there is an aspect of waiting tied to every promise. Even the promise of the seed of a woman that would crush the seed of the serpent given in Genesis took thousands of years to manifest. God has perfect timing for each promise. Sadly, we can delay His timing and the manifestation of a promise by unbelief. That’s why Israel had to wait an extra 40 years to enter Canaan. We can speak words contrary to the promise. We can do things in the flesh to try to bring about the promise without God’s help. When we get anxious and try to speed things up, it never turns out well. Consider Ishmael.
We really can experience every promise of God come to pass in our lives. He has done everything needed for each one to manifest. God always keeps His promises. It is up to us to receive them by believing and waiting.
