Bible promises

I have known the power of Bible promises for a long time.  Since I was a young child I began memorizing Scripture.  Actually my first learning was through a TV show for kids and a program for churches known as Bible Bowl.  I even won an award for being the “most Christian boy” at Bible Bowl camp when I was 7 or 8 years old (I became a Christian several years later).

Bible promises continued through my high school years and college years.  As Julie and I were moving toward marriage, God gave us Scripture to live by.  Through some hard times and even great times in ministry God has given us verses that took us places we couldn’t go on our own.

That leads me to some verses that God gave me this weekend.  This is powerful truth that spoke into the situation of that moment and the days to come.  It is from Isaiah 55.  Read the chapter below:

“Is anyone thirsty?  Come and drink—even if you have no money!  Come, take your choice of wine or milk— it’s all free!

2 Why spend your money on food that does not give you strength?  Why pay for food that does you no good?  Listen to me, and you will eat what is good.  You will enjoy the finest food.

3 “Come to me with your ears wide open.  Listen, and you will find life.  I will make an everlasting covenant with you.  I will give you all the unfailing love I promised to David.

4 See how I used him to display my power among the peoples.  I made him a leader among the nations.

5 You also will command nations you do not know, and peoples unknown to you will come running to obey, because I, the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, have made you glorious.”

6 Seek the Lord while you can find him.  Call on him now while he is near.

7 Let the wicked change their ways and banish the very thought of doing wrong.  Let them turn to the Lord that he may have mercy on them.  Yes, turn to our God, for he will forgive generously.

8 “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.  “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.

9 For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

10 “The rain and snow come down from the heavens and stay on the ground to water the earth.  They cause the grain to grow, producing seed for the farmer and bread for the hungry.

11 It is the same with my word.  I send it out, and it always produces fruit.  It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it.

12 You will live in joy and peace.  The mountains and hills will burst into song, and the trees of the field will clap their hands!

13 Where once there were thorns, cypress trees will grow.  Where nettles grew, myrtles will sprout up.  These events will bring great honor to the Lord’s name; they will be an everlasting sign of his power and love.”

You can find the Bible promises in these verses.  I don’t have to point them out to you if you are tuned into what God is saying.

You may ask how to find Bible promises, and I will give you my thought.  No magic here.  Just the idea that I come to the Bible with.  It is not opening to the Bible to some random place and letting your finger drop to some random verse.  I believe that God speaks through His word no matter how you read it.

Just read the Bible.  I encourage you to read it methodically, and as you read God will share His goodness and His wisdom with you.  How did I find Isaiah 55?  It was part of my daily Bible reading last Saturday.

But the story doesn’t stop there.  When I was on a retreat last weekend, I lost the place where I was reading in Isaiah and began at another spot.  That meant I had to come back to those chapters when I got back home.  That means that I was supposed to read Isaiah 55 several days earlier, but God wanted me to read this chapter on a particular day.  It was what He had for me. 

That’s awesome.  That’s God.  He has Bible promises for you too!  Find them as you read.