God Sees And Remembers His Promises!

Divine Promises

Glorious Jehovah, My Covenant God,

All thy promises in Christ Jesus are 

yea and amen, and shall be fulfilled.

Thou has spoken them, and they shall be done,

commanded, and they shall come to pass.

Yet I have often doubted thee,

have lived at times as if there were no God.

Lord, forgive me that death in life,

when I have found something apart from thee,

when I have been content with ephemeral things.

But through thy grace I have repented;

Thou has given me to read my pardon

in the wounds of Jesus,

and my soul doth trust in him, my God incarnate,

the ground of my life, the spring of my hope.

Teach me to be resigned to thy will,

to delight in thy law, 

to have no will but thine,

to believe that everything thou doest is 

for my good.

Help me to leave my concerns in thy hands,

for thou has power over evil, 

and bringest from it an infinite progression

of good,

until thy purposes are fulfilled.

Bless me with Abraham's faith

that staggers not at promises through unbelief.

May I not instruct thee in my troubles,

but glorify thee in my trials;

Grant me a distinct advance in the divine life;

May I reach a higher platform,

leave the mists of doubt and fear in the valley,

and climb to hill-tops of eternal security in Christ

by simply believing he cannot lie,

or turn from his purpose.

Give me the confidence I ought to have in him

who is worthy to be praised,

and who is blessed for evermore.  

Divine Promises, Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions

But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark.  And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided. The fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained, and the water receded from the earth continually.  At the end of 150 days the waters had abated,... the earth had dried out.  Then God said to Noah, "Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons' wives with you... Then Noah built an alter to the LORD and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the alter.  And when the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, the LORD said in his heart, "I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth.  Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. While the earth remains seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease."

Then God said to Noah and his sons with him,"Behold I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark; it is for every beast of the earth.  I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut of by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth."  And God said, " this is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations;  I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.  When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all fresh.  And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.  When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth."  God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth."

God is a covenant keeping God who when he establishes a covenant he does it not only for us but so that He too is reminded of His promises to His people.  

When I bring clouds... and the bow is seen... I will remember my covenant...

When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant ...

God is not a man that He would lie and He not only set the water cycle in motion in order to dry the land so that Noah and his family could offer burnt offerings to the LORD, but He promised to never again strike down every living thing although He knew that the intentions of man's heart is evil from his youth.  

What a generous, merciful, God of safety we serve!  A God who contemplates our affliction and abated His wrath by sending the 'Son' to evaporate His fury against mankind.

What a wonder we have in Jesus who willingly died the death we deserved so that we might live.  

One of my favorite hymns  is "O Love That Will Not Let Me Go" was written by George Matheson who wrote the hymn in immense mental anguish while left alone as his whole family went to his sister's wedding. 

History of Hymn  ...years before, he had been engaged until his fiancé learned that he was going blind, and there was nothing the doctors could do, and she told him that she could not go through life with a blind man. He went blind while studying for the ministry, and his sister had been the one who had taken care of him all these years, but now she is gone....  So he turned to the pastoral ministry, and the Lord richly blessed him, finally bringing him to a church where he regularly preached to over 1500 people each week. But he was only able to do this because of the care of his sister and now she was married and gone. Who will care for him, a blind man? Not only that, but his sister’s marriage brought fresh reminder of his own heartbreak, over his fiancé’s refusal to “go through life with a blind man.” It is the midst of this circumstance and intense sadness that the Lord gives him this hymn – written he says in 5 minutes! Looking back over his life, he once wrote that his was “an obstructed life, a circumscribed life… but a life of quenchless hopefulness, a life which has beaten persistently against the cage of circumstance, and which even at the time of abandoned work has said not “Good night” but “Good morning.” How could he maintain quenchless hopefulness in the midst of such circumstances and trials? His hymn gives us a clue. “I trace the rainbow in the rain, and feel the promise is not vain” The rainbow image is not for him “If the Lord gives you lemons make lemonade” but a picture of the Lord’s commitment! It is a picture of the battle bow that appears when the skies are darkening and threaten to open up and flood the world again in judgment. But then we see that the battle bow is turned not towards us – but toward the Lord Himself!

Help us Lord to trace the rainbow through the rain, and feel your promise is not in vain!