Isn't it strange that so many Christians while believing, theoretically,
in the reality and trustworthiness of God's promises, do not have the
same sort of practical belief in Him which they show in the promise of
their bank to pay them, on demand, the sum written down in their book of
deposit?
And banks have been known to fail in keeping their very limited
promises, while God has never failed in keeping His unlimited assurances
of blessing.
For so many the strange delusion that God's promises are not to be
counted on in the same literal sense as the promises of our associates
persists through life, but there are fortunate Christians who have their
eyes opened to the truth. And what a difference the knowledge makes to
them!
F. B. Meyer told in one of his public addresses of the transformation
wrought for him when his eyes were opened to the truth. As a boy of
thirteen he had been a student at Brighton College. He was timid and
sensitive, and the older students soon learned that they could make his
life a burden to him. With a sigh of relief he went home at the end of
the first week of school. On Sunday, however, the thought that he must
return came to him with oppressing force. How could he stand up against
the older students? He was idly turning the pages of his Bible when he
came to the 121st Psalm. "How voraciously I devoured it!" he said. "How
I read it again and again, and wrapt it round me! How I took it as my
shield! And the next day I walked into the great expanse in front of the
college so serene and strong. It was my first act of appropriating the
promises of God."
Three years later the student was agonizing because he wanted to be a
minister, yet feared to plan for the work because his voice was weak,
and he feared that he would not have the courage to speak. He had been
asking God to show him His will, and to help him in his difficulty. Then
he found Jeremiah 1:7, and read it for the first time. "With
indescribable feelings I read it again and again, and even now never
come on it without a thrill of emotion," he said of his experience. "It
was the answer to all my perplexing questionings. Yes, I was the child;
I was to go to those to whom He sent me, and speak what He bade me, and
He would be with me and teach my lips."
Another man, who had learned to accept literally God's promise, "Ask,
and it shall be given unto you," wrote gratefully of his experience:
"My life is one long, daily, hourly record of answered prayer. For
physical health, for mental overstrain, for guidance given marvelously,
for errors and dangers averted, for enmity to the Gospel subdued, for
food provided at the exact hour needed, for everything that goes to make
up life and my poor service, I can testify with a full and often
wonder-stricken awe that I believe God answers prayer. I know God
answers prayer. Cavillings, logical or physical, are of no avail to me.
It is the very atmosphere in which I live and breathe and have my being,
and it makes life glad and free and a million times worth living."
A worker among his fellows in India stated the ground of his belief in
God's promise to supply the needs of his people. The sentence was
written while he was at home on furlough:
"Whatsoever you ask, believe that you have received it, and you shall
have it. The belief is not the denial of a fact, but rather the
assurance that the petition is in accordance with God's will, and that
He is as disposed to give as we to receive; our reception of the gift
depends on our holding on to His will. Now the practical question is,
What is God's will? Am I conforming to it? Through lack of faith am I
failing to receive and appropriate for myself and Satara what I and
Satara need? Is it God's will that I should return and that there should
be better paid work? More of it? More school-houses? New houses for
workers?"
A few days later he added to these notes the word "Yes." His faith
enabled him to claim God's promise.
A Christian young man in Japan was accustomed to stand at the entrance
to the park in Tokyo, offering Bibles and preaching the Gospel. Years
passed, and he saw no results of his work. Yet he believed in Him who
had promised that His name should be exalted among the heathen. At
length a Testament was bought by a young man to whom the words of John
3:16 brought life and joy. He went back to the old man from whose hand
he had received the book, and told him that he had become a Christian.
The man was overcome with joy.
"Ten years," he said, "I have been selling New Testaments here at the
park gates, and you are the first who has ever come to tell me you were
helped."
But throughout those ten years the faithful worker was sustained by his
belief in the faithfulness of Him who had promised to bless him in his
work. He knew that God would not fail him.