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Lift up your head and smile through your tears.
God’s never failed you down through the years.
He has watched o’er you; cared for His own.
He’ll not fail now. He’s still on the throne.
Dark though the shadows, just now may be,
Still through the mist the pathway you’ll see.
Faith to the promise unfailing clings.
God’s on the throne and prayer changes things.
Today we turn to the precious Word of God and a very familiar scripture in 2 Peter 1:2–4: “May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.”
These precious and very great promises have been a theme of mine through the years as I have continually found them to be so dependable, so real. So often I have marveled at the willingness of God to back up His promises so readily; that is, when we meet the conditions.
I want you to remember that God expects us to meet His conditions. But these promises are true, because God himself is behind them with all His power and ability. I say ability because man isn’t always able to fulfill his promises, but God is able. I love those words: God is able!
God’s Word says that He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that you ask or think (Ephesians 3:20). Don’t ever let anyone limit your faith! God stands behind the promise that you have chosen in your hour of need, and He’ll not fail you.
No words are in the Bible simply for effect. When God says, “Call upon me and I will answer you,” believe it, because it is the word of God Himself (Psalm 91:15; Jeremiah 33:3). God has spoken. Today, this day, now, the very words of God are brimming with supernatural power to be released by the touch of your faith.
How is your faith? If you will answer one question, I can tell you how your faith is. Have you been reading God’s Word faithfully, earnestly, daily, with an open heart and mind? If you have, your faith is strong and active. “For faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Romans 10:17). Don’t ask friends to pray that you will have faith, just get back to God’s Word. Read it and you’ll have faith.
Did you ever have a friend upon whom you could utterly depend? Who was absolutely faithful to you when things were going wrong? Such friends are so rare, but oh, how we value them! Someone has said, “There is a strange bond that links a man to that which he has found to be dependable and true. There is a tie that really binds you to the one you can depend on in stormy weather.”
Just so, anyone who has tried and trusted the promises in the Bible when there was no hope, no other help, nothing to lean on in the darkest hour, has found them to be utterly trustworthy, and has come through the storms with such a love for God’s Word.
Do you doubt this? My friend, if these promises are not worthy of unconditional, limitless trust, then the gospel of the love and grace of God is a myth, a fabric of untruths. But we know through experience that we can put limitless trust in every word and rest our full weight upon them. We can take God at His Word!
When troubles and trials come, instead of letting them grow, get your Bible and find a promise and claim it in Christ’s name, and step out upon it. Here is one that is surely too big for me to comprehend, but I often claim it: “Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:13).
And here’s one even bigger. It says: “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know” (Jeremiah 33:3). No wonder the Word calls these promises “exceeding great and precious!”
All God asks is simple faith that you take Him at His word and accept His promises at their face value. You know, many modern scientific-minded people think it utterly ridiculous and impossible to take God’s promises literally, seriously.
In the plant of the Sikorsky factory there is a sign that reads, “According to recognized aero-technical tests, the bumblebee cannot fly because of the shape and weight of his body in relation to his total wing area. But you know, the bumblebee doesn’t know that, so he just goes ahead and flies and flies and flies anyhow.”
So it is that, in spite of all this philosophical reasoning, there are those of trusting and childlike faith who are daily doing things that doubting intellectuals say can’t be done. They dare to take the promises in God’s Word just as they are, appropriate them for themselves, and act upon them, and they are getting the most wonderful answers to prayer, and problems solved, and needs met. You see, the bumblebee is flying nevertheless!
So let the philosophers tangle themselves up in the web of difficulties and intellectual doubts, trying to explain away our right to accept these great and precious promises, but we’ll walk right in and enjoy the full riches of them. They are there for you. God means them for you personally.
It is so strange that in this age of mysterious, powerful, invisible forces such as we have today in radar, atomic energy, and jet propulsion, we should doubt the power of a mighty God and His supernatural working in answer to our prayers. You know, I have reason for speaking thus, because my life has been given to consideration of this, and all the cumulative evidence has been that God’s promises are real. They are workable, they are practical. God will not fail His Word. As I often say, it’s so because God says so. God will keep His Word. And here are those precious words of a song I have sung so many times as I stood upon the promises of God:
How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!
What more can He say than to you He has said,
To you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?
Fear not, I am with thee, oh be not dismayed,
For I am thy God, I will still give thee aid.
I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,
Upheld by My gracious, omnipotent hand.
And when through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,
My grace all sufficient shall be thy supply.
The flame shall not hurt thee, I only design
Thy dross to consume, thy gold to refine.1
God will never forsake you, my friend.
From a transcript of a Meditation Moments broadcast, adapted. Published on Anchor March 2025. Read by Debra Lee.
1 From “How Firm a Foundation,” attributed to various authors, 1787.
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