The Culture of Hope Founded on Faith

Battle-Ready Promises

In John 16:33 Jesus states, “These things I have spoken unto you that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world.” What a delight it is to know that God’s promises are not just hot air. God gave them to us and He will accomplish them in our lives through our faith.

There are many promises throughout Scripture, both in the Old and the New Testaments. Every once in a while He reveals them to us just when we need them. Recently He reminded me of Psalm 42:11 (also found in 43:5), “Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him who is my salvation.”

Psalm 62:6 also gives me great comfort, “He alone is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not be moved.” Psalm 18:2 expands the list of battle-ready metaphors for the divine protection God promises to us: “The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.” Psalm 61:3 extends the tower metaphor into a strong tower, as well as a high tower, “For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy.”

When God is our Rock, our salvation, our high and strong tower, and our weaponry to fight the spiritual warfare persistently being waged around us, there is nothing that can harm us without God’s express permission, purpose, and eternal glory at stake.. We have all the protection we need in Him. Whatever is going on in our lives at any given point can be safely placed in His hands. That letting go of all that concerns us returns on us in the form of the peace, joy, and gratitude that we are exhorted to in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 and 23.

Another set of promises that expresses our source of spiritual victory is found in 2 Peter 1:3-4: “His divine power has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that has called us to glory and virtue, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

How can we be defeated by our circumstances or surroundings when we have, as God promised, all that we need to overcome? With Jesus as our focus, God’s promises cover us entirely.

 

•