What has God Promised you?

I received this devotional by email and it encouraged me so much that I thought I would share. I know there are a lot of adoptive parents waiting on kids out there and wanted you to be encouraged. Melissa

What has God promised you?

April 09
by John Paul Jackson

Thousands of years before Jesus’ birth, a young man named Joseph knew that one day, he was going to rise to a position of great authority. The problem? He was a slave who had just been accused of rape.

A few years later, a middle-aged man named Moses knew he was going to free more than one million slaves — in a short period of time, without a war. The problem? The people he had come to save hated him because, up until that point, his efforts had produced nothing but heartache for them.

Blind faith

Throughout Scripture, an extraordinary pattern emerges. Nearly every story is filled with incredible hardship; staggering odds; and shake-you-to-the-core, this-isn’t-going-to-work situations. But the people in these stories became heroes and heroines of the faith. How? They had one thing going for them: Instead of giving up, they clung to what God had promised them.

They knew what God had told them, and they didn’t forget it. They took Him at His word. Even when they were at the lowest they had ever been before, they refused to let go of what He had said.

You are the God who heals, so come and heal. You are the God who delivers, so come and deliver. You are the God who brings peace; we need Your peace! You are the God who is all-powerful, omnipotent — come and show it!

We believe You are these things, so come and be these things in our lives. O God, we believe Your name! We believe that Your acts, Your name and Your glory are inseparable! If You don’t do what Your name is, then You are not Your name. Your name depicts who You are, so You will do these things because You are who You are. O God, come and do what You have promised!

No matter who we are, where we live, what we’ve accomplished or what we’ve lost, we have a promise that God is waiting to fulfill. And He will fulfill that promise — if we don’t give up. If He’s told us He will do something, then it’s already done. So in a way we can’t give up, because we’re guaranteed to accomplish what He said.

Taking God at His word

It is time to fully believe what Isaiah wrote concerning God’s word:

“For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven,

And do not return there,

But water the earth,

And make it bring forth and bud,

That it may give seed to the sower

And bread to the eater,

So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;

It shall not return to Me void,

But it shall accomplish what I please,

And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”

— Isaiah 55:10–11

With this promise of success in mind, I want to put this question to you: What has God told you?

Are there promises that you are overlooking? Is there something — today — that He is asking you to remember? If He told you He would do something, then it is as good as done.

We need to view our circumstances in light of the whole picture. When we read about the champions in the Bible, we’re not seeing their trepidation, the trembling, the everyday decisions to be brave. We don’t see the “human” parts, but they were there as much as they are here with us. Your story could be just as inspiring as theirs . . . if you don’t give up.

Today, take some time to remember what your Father has told you. If He is asking you to do something, do it, and don’t be afraid. It is as good as done.