Promises

Spurgeon: Christ’s Promise of Unlimited Power

/ Andrew / Leave a comment

Enjoy this wonderful excerpt from Crossway’s beautiful reprint of C.H. Spurgeon’s classic devotional ‘The Chequebook of Faith.’ Here is a devotional great for family or personal worship. Spurgeon was unmatched in his beautiful expressions of gospel truth. In this work, he masterfully feeds his readers, setting their faith firmly on a different promise each day of the year.

“If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” John 15:7

Of necessity we must be in Christ to live for him. And we must abide in him to be able to claim the largesse of this promise from him. To abide in Jesus is never to leave him for another love, or another object, but to remain in living, loving, conscious, willing union with him. The branch is not only always near the stem, but always receiving life and fruitfulness from it. All true believers abide in Christ in a sense. But there is a higher meaning, and this we must know before we can gain unlimited power at the throne. “Ask whatever you wish” is for Enochs who walk with God (Gen 5:24), for Johns who recline at the Lord’s side (John 13:23), for those whose union with Christ leads to constant communion.

The heart must remain in love. The mind must be rooted in faith. The hope must be cemented to the Word. The whole person must be joined to the Lord. Otherwise it would be dangerous to trust us with power in prayer. The carte blanche can only be given to one whose very life can be summed up as: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20. Oh, you who break your fellowship, what power you lose.
If you would be mighty in your pleadings before God, the Lord himself must abide in you, and you in him.

The Promises of God, Feb 23

The Precious Promises of Christ

/ Andrew / 20 Comments

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There are times in life when we have to fight to believe what we know to be true. We may become bogged down by the disappointments and trials of life and slip into seasons of doubting and questioning our hope. If you’re discouraged and downcast in spirit, this post is for you.

Thomas Brooks once wrote, “Three things are called precious in the Scripture: the blood of Christ is called ‘precious blood,’ 1 Peter 1:19; and faith is called ‘precious faith’ 2 Peter 1:1; and the promises are called ‘precious promises,’ 2 Peter 1:4.”  Are the promises of Christ precious to you today?

I recently compiled a list of all Christ’s promises (Download the PDF). I highlighted conditions of the promises in red and the actual promise in yellow. This has become a sweet document to me. I regularly come and let the promises of Christ wash over me. Christ’s people are a blessed people. When I read through the promises I quickly become overwhelmed. There is so much the Lord has promised to do for us in his Word.

Here are a few of the the precious promises of Christ I’ve been savoring recently:

Matthew 5:8  “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

Matthew 6:3-4 “But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

Matthew 6:6 “But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

John 8:31-32 “So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, ‘If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.'”

John 10:9-10 “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.  The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”

John 14:12-14 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”

John 15:11 “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”

John 15:5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”

John 15:7 “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”

Revelation 22:12-13 “Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay everyone for what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”

Revelation 22:20  “He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!”

 

“Furnish thyself with arguments from the promises to enforce thy prayers, and make them prevalent with God. The promises are the ground of faith, and faith, when strengthened, will make thee fervent, and such fervency ever speeds and returns with victory out of the field of prayer… The mightier any is in the Word, the more mighty he will be in prayer.” ~William Gurnall