THE GREATNESS OF GOD'S PROMISES

Where there is faith to chase the promise, there the promise will give comfort and peace in abundance.

Believing souls now sing praises to the mercy and justice of Him who redeemed them, and will sing the same song forever. Now how much better are the voluntary sufferings of Christ than the forced torments of the damned? And the melodious praises of saints in heaven than the forced acknowledgments of souls in hell?

Only faith can see God in His greatness; and therefore nothing but faith can see the promises in their greatness because their value lies in the worth of Him who makes them. This is why promises have so little effect on an unbelieving heart, either to keep it from sinning or to comfort it because of sin's torment. Where there is faith to chase the promise, there the promise will give comfort and peace in abundance. It will be as sweet wine glowing with inward joy in the believer; but on an unbelieving heart the promise lies cold and ineffectual. It has no more effect on such a soul than medicine poured down a dead man's throat.

The promises do not comfort actually and formally, as fire has heat; if this were true we could be comforted merely by thinking about a promise. But the promises comfort virtually, as fire is in the flint, which requires labor and art to strike it out and draw it forth. Only faith can teach us this skill of drawing out the sweetness and virtue of the promise, and it does this in three ways.

Faith goes to the source of the promises. Here the Christian can take advantage of the best view of their precious qualities. We can understand very little about something unless we trace it to its source and see its beginnings. A soul knows his sins are great when he sees them flowing from an envenomed nature which teems with enmity against God. The sinner will tremble at the threatenings that roll like thunder over his head when he sees where they come from and the perfect hatred God has of sin.”

Quoted material from, ”The Christian in Complete Armour Daily Readings in Spiritual Warfare” by Gurnall and James S Bell. http://www.moodypublishers.com/pub_productDetail.aspx?id=41823&pid=53617