Bible Text: Numbers 23:19 | Speaker: Dr. Harold J. Sala | Series: Guidelines For Living | God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill? Numbers 23:19

Do you ever feel like giving up? One of our listeners wrote saying that he had prayed about something, and that God did not answer his prayer, so he was just giving up on the idea. Perhaps you, too, are wondering about the validity of God’s promises. Everyone at some time or another feels overwhelmed by discouragement and is tempted to conclude, “I’m just not the kind…. It may work for others but not me!” Hold on!

Temptation is no sin, but believing what you know to be untrue is, and because I have been there, let me focus on some of the promises you find in God’s Word and help you better to understand them. First–while some of the promises of God found in the Bible were given to certain individuals and are not for public consumption, most of the 32,000 promises of the Bible are given to God’s children everywhere. By the term “God’s children,” I mean those who have come into a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

A college professor once told me, “I do not like it when you exclude some people from being the children of God.” It was not I who made that exclusion, but the writers of Scripture long ago. John wrote that a believer in Jesus Christ is adopted into the family of God: and, therefore, the promises of God–like a father to a son–are special promises to His children.

The first obstacle that I had to cross was the fact that all of God’s promises do not have a timetable attached to them. In other words, I usually want the answers to my requests right now! If I had wanted them tomorrow, I probably would have waited until tomorrow to ask for them. I’m like the man who prayed “God, give me patience, and give it to me right now…!” God’s timetable is much different from ours because He is free from the constraints of time and space. Because we are not, we impatiently order God to perform right now, for we are afraid that tomorrow will be too late. The response of faith is to continue to believe that God has heard us, and that He will answer our prayers according to His timetable–not ours.

Another consideration is that God’s promises are resting upon His integrity, and therefore we can be sure of their validity. “God is not a man that He should lie” (Numbers 23:19). But when we pray about something and then worry as though there were no God, we are really saying, “God, I’m not sure you can really be trusted!” The Apostle Paul, who knew something experimentally about having to wait on God, said, “Though we deny Him, yet He abides faithful; He cannot deny Himself” (2 Timothy 2:13).

A final thought: The promises of God–all of them–are circumscribed by His faithfulness. When Sarah of old was 90, she brought forth a son, fifty years beyond the normal age for childbearing. “By faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive,” says the New Testament, “even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered Him faithful who had promised” (Hebrews 11:11).

Unlike men who make promises, or sign covenants and treaties that are often broken before the ink is dry, God will honor His Word. “The Word of our God shall stand forever” (Isaiah 40:8). And forever is a long, long time. Therefore, you can stand on His promises, confident that He will not fail you nor forsake you (Hebrews 13:5). Do not despair, but tie a knot in the rope and hold on. God knows where you are right now.

Resource reading: Daniel 6