When you wake up in the morning, take hold of one biblical promise for the day. It’ll help you to live standing on the promises of God!
I am Joni Eareckson Tada, and I live on the promises of God.
Honestly I do! The promises of God are like gas in my tank, like water to my parched throat, like a feast to my hungry heart. There are so many promises to lean on, but just like Jesus tells us to take one day at a time, often, in the morning, I like to take just one promise at a time – just one for the day. My brain can’t manage a whole slew of promises, but with each new morning, I can be guided by at least one. And so, when I wake up feeling the crunch of my suffering, I turn to, well, Psalm 34:19, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” Oh, what a promise that is when I am hurting in the morning when I get up. God promises me that I’m going to come out of it all in his good time. It’s a great promise to carry me through the day and when afternoon comes, I’m harkening back to Psalm 34, asking God to deliver me out of all my afflictions, no matter how badly it hurts.
Or I could wake up and take hold of a different promise. Like when I am feeling the crunch of my weakness and I feel utterly deflated, completely devoid of strength, physically, emotionally. That happens a lot. And so, the promise I might live on for the day could be from 2 Chronicles 16:9. Now this is a really great promise filled with such hope, for it says, “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to give strong support to those whose heart is toward him.” God is looking for people to pour his strength into. I mean, if you’re feeling weak, mentally or spiritually, just keep your heart toward the Lord; keep looking up; keep faith; because when you do, you’ll know you have the eyes of the Lord on you, and he will give you – as it says – strong support.
Or maybe in the morning when I wake up, I could grab hold of 2 Peter 1:4 because it says that God has given me his great and precious promises so that through them, I might participate in his divine nature. What a promise! When you hold fast to Psalm 34 or 2 Chronicles 16, or any other promise for the day; when you cling to it; believe it, hold onto it and live by it, friend, it is a way of participating in God’s very nature. I just love the way J.B. Phillips paraphrases 2 Peter 1:4. He says, “It is through [Christ] that God’s greatest and most precious promises have become available to us men, making it possible for you to escape the inevitable disintegration that lust produces in the world and to share in God’s essential nature.” I think that sums it up beautifully. If you want to live as you should; if you want to escape the temptations of this world and share – get this – share in God’s essential nature – that is, his power, his strength, his peace and wisdom – then learn to live on the promises of God. Like the old hymn goes, “Standing on the promises of God, my king, through eternal ages, let his praises ring; glory in the highest I will shout and sing, standing on the promises of God.” Or in my case, I’m sitting on them.
So, friend, start living on God’s promises. Wake up tomorrow morning and grab hold of just one Bible promise, and watch the Lord do his mighty work through his Word. Read that promise, memorize it, sing that promise, and recite it throughout the day. For it is the best way – no, no, rather, it is the Christian, the biblical way to live, standing on the promises of God.
© Joni and Friends