Week 4 Cashing In On God’s Promises

I love this picture of God’s promises as checks to be cashed. I first read this metaphor in Spurgeon’s book, Faith’s Checkbook. Then, later, I heard Corrie ten Boom, refer to God’s promises as something her name was attached to. I loved that picture and heard Corrie say it again and again, applying God’s promises in her own life. She personalized them and spoke of presenting them to God with her name attached on every one. Incredible, when you think about it!! I think we need to get serious with God about what He says in His Word. That’s the profound truth I came away with this week as I read the in-depth views of some of God’s best promises. I’m more committed than ever to know God’s Word, pray using what God says as the main contents of my prayers, and then plead God’s promises as I talk with Him about those things that press in on my life the most. I don’t know about you, but I surely have things that weigh me down and press in on my heart. I am choosing to turn each weight and burden into an opportunity to pray. I am storming the doors of heaven and bowing low before the throne of grace, confidently talking with God. We are to be confident prayer, according to Hebrews 4:16. And if God’s Word endorses confident prayer, then surely our lives can demonstrate such boldness at the throne of grace. So, dear friends, take those promises and write a check on each one, presenting them to the Father. Here’s the encouragement from Spurgeon for those who write “checks” on the promises: “If he has come to Heaven’s bank at the right date, he will receive the promised amount at once. If the date should happen to be further on, he must patiently wait till its arrival; but meanwhile he may count the promise as money, for the Bank is sure to pay when the due time arrives.”

Spurgeon goes on to say: “I believe all the promises of God, but many of them I have personally tried and proved. I have seen that they are true, for they have been fulfilled to me. I have been cast into “waters to swim in,” which, but for God’s upholding hand, would have proved waters to drown in. I have endured tribulation from many hails. Sharp bodily pain succeeded mental depression, and this was accompanied both by bereavement and affliction in the person of one dear as life. The waters rolled in continually, wave upon wave. I do not mention this to exact sympathy, but simply to let the reader see that I am no dry-land sailor. I have traversed full many a time those oceans which are not Pacific: I know the roll of the billows, and the rush of the winds. Never were the promises of Jehovah so precious to me as at this hour. Some of them I never understood till now; I had not reached the date at which they matured, for I was not myself mature enough to perceive their meaning.
How much more wonderful is the Bible to me now than it was a few months ago! In obeying the LORD, and bearing His reproach outside the camp, I have not received new promises; but the result to me is much the same as if I had done so, for the old ones have opened up to me with richer stores.”

And then, Spurgeon says this to you and to me in our trials: “My brethren, God is good. He will not forsake you: He will bear you through. There is a promise prepared for your present emergencies; and if you will believe and plead it at the mercy-seat through Jesus Christ, you shall see the hand of the LORD stretched out to help you. Everything else will fail, but His word never will. ”

Those are the words of Charles Spurgeon, called by many the Prince of Preachers. He understood the importance of the promises of God and you and I must also, for the promises are a great secret to passionate prayer that discovers the power of talking with God.

God bless you all as you continue on in this great adventure of knowing Him.