Promises

 May 2, 2023

“Faith turns the promise into prophecy.” I love a good turn of a phrase, and this one to me is among the best. I found it in an old devotional book of my mother’s, marked and annotated in her tiny, precise handwriting. “Springs in the Desert,” by (as she called herself) Mrs. Chas. E Cowman. 

The rest of the paragraph is instructive: “While it is merely a promise it is contingent upon our cooperation. But when faith claims it, it becomes a prophecy, and we go forth feeling the it is something that must be done because God cannot lie.” She continues, “I hear men praying everywhere for more faith, but when I listen to them carefully and get at the real heart of their prayer, very often it is not more faith at all that they are wanting, but a change from faith to sight.”

Praying in faith doesn’t always make things turn out the way we want, but it does lay hold of God’s promises so as to keep us praying when we would otherwise give up. Seen this way, I shudder to think of how often I’ve quit praying because I didn’t see the expected result in my expected time. I can be a bit dense, but I’m slowly learning to wait on the Lord. That word “wait” means exactly what we would think; I pray for wisdom and guidance, over and over, not sensing any certainty about what I should do, but I don’t stop praying, and eventually the haze begins to lift and I see the outlines of God’s plans slowly coming into view.

God has promised much in his Word, but we miss so much of it because we haven’t seen it as promise, or more precisely, we haven’t seen it as a promise for us, and sometimes, we take as promises that which God has not offered. Today I read in Matthew 24 the promise of tribulation, betrayal, and suffering, In the midst of this promise is another: “I am with you to the end of the age.” I believe this; so it’s not only a promise, but a prophecy that is being fulfilled even as I write, even as you read.