[The following article introduced the book, Kneeling on the Promises of God.]
As you have likely heard, the hymn “Standing on the Promises” encourages us to trust God and take Him at His word. But from the very beginning of time, the matter of believing God arose in the Garden of Eden with the doubt-producing question, “Does God really mean what He says?” That contagious thought gave mankind an excuse to disobey, and distrust gave birth to death!
Now, as then, wariness of God brings uncertainty and the ongoing scramble to find, “Who can I trust?” Sometimes we can’t even trust ourselves! So where do we turn? Do we place our hope and faith in money, power, politics, institutions, traditions, or trends?
The trouble with those options is that people change their minds. Money changes hands and value. Political leaders come and go. Institutions become something unlike their original selves, and trends are, well, trendy. Facts get disproven as new information comes to light. Even the ground beneath our feet trembles, and stars careen from the sky. Everything changes! But God does not change, and neither does God’s word.
Mysteriously and paradoxically, the Holy Spirit is invisible to us yet the most solid matter. So, too, are the promises God gives – promises so stabilizing, we can build our whole lives on them. Promises so truthful and trustworthy, they can become the basis of our most powerful prayers. But why should we believe those promises? Why should we place our faith in God?
According to the Bible, God is Love – forgiving, compassionate love that can always be trusted to do what’s best for us and our spiritual well-being. Nothing and no one is greater, kinder, holier, or more trustworthy than God. Nothing and no one can offer us more power or purpose for our lives. Once we realize we can totally trust the Lord, we can build our marriages, families, churches, and occupations on the promises God gives.
We can build our prayer lives on those promises too. We can take God at His word, knowing He agrees with our prayer requests because He has already promised the very things we claim or ask Him to do. Therefore, to kneel on a promise God made means claiming that promise and praying it into our lives.
To put this belief into practice, the book Kneeling on the Promises of God includes heartfelt, conversational prayers following each Bible promise – promises found in a variety of translations but paraphrased into everyday English. These prayers are to give you an idea of how you, too, might kneel on the promises in God’s Word.
The hope is that relevant prayers will also come to you as you meditate on the scripture verses, and write down your prayers, claiming God’s promises in the space provided on the lower part of each page. But, before doing this:
Pre-pare with pre-prayer!
Pray for the prayers to pray.
Regardless of our denominational affiliations or cultural backgrounds, let’s agree to stand on the promises of God throughout our lives and kneel on those promises as we claim God’s Word each day and night in prayer.
May God bless you and your prayer life in the Lord!
Mary Harwell Sayler
For actual prayers from the Bible, visit the Bible Prayers blog.
