Are All of God's Promises Really for You?

By Pastor John Erickson

It's easy to read the Bible and find a promise we really like.

Maybe it's a promise about blessing. Or success. Or God making a way when there doesn't seem to be one. And we think, I'll take that one. That sounds good.

But then life doesn't work out the way we pictured. The door doesn't open. The relationship doesn't get fixed. The thing we were sure God had promised hasn't happened.

So what do we do with that? Did God break his promise? Did we not have enough faith? Or is it possible that we misunderstood what was being promised in the first place?

Gina and I found a parenting trick when our kids were younger: shower popsicles. Popsicles can make an impressive mess. Someone drops one, everything gets sticky, and suddenly a little treat has become a cleaning project. Letting the kids eat them in the shower meant they could enjoy the popsicle and get clean at the same time. Genius, if I do say so myself.

Sometimes we would promise shower popsicles to give them something to look forward to. They were excited about the treat. And I wonder whether we sometimes imagine God's promises that way: heavenly shower popsicles. Something pleasant God will hand us if everything goes right.

But God's promises do more than give us a future treat. They draw us toward Him and teach us to share in the life He gives.

I love the book of Joshua because it forces us to wrestle with those questions. It's a story about God keeping his word to a particular people, in a particular place, over a very long time. And there are some things we can learn about trusting him in our own lives.

God's Promises Are Rooted in God's Character

The Israelites had been waiting generations for the promise God gave Abraham. They would become a people, and God would give them a land. By the opening of Joshua, Moses has died, and a new leader is being asked to lead them into what God had promised long before he was born.

Imagine stepping into Joshua's shoes. Big shoes to fill. Moses had led these people for forty years. Now Joshua has to lead them across the Jordan and into territory they haven't occupied.

And where does his confidence come from? Not from Joshua being unusually gifted or persuasive. It comes from the character of the God who made the promise.

That's what makes biblical promises so important. The Bible isn't simply a collection of motivational sayings. It tells us what God is like: faithful, merciful, patient, just. His promises invite us to trust him, not just the outcome we want.

Romans 15:4 says that the Scriptures give us endurance, encouragement, and hope. We look at what God has done and learn that he can be trusted.

A Promise Is Not the Same Thing as a Principle

Here's where we need to be careful.

There is a difference between a promise and a principle. A promise is a commitment. A principle describes how life generally works when we live wisely.

Think about Proverbs 22:6, which talks about training a child in the way he should go. It's wisdom worth taking seriously. But it isn't a mechanical guarantee that every child with good parents will make exactly the decisions their parents hope for.

You can love your kids well, teach them about Jesus, and still discover that they're human beings who make their own choices. Imagine that.

Or consider the saying, "Cheaters never prosper." It's a pretty good lesson to teach children. But is it always literally true? I've seen people cheat and get ahead, at least for a while. It describes a moral principle, not a timetable for how every situation will unfold.

When we turn principles into guarantees, we can set ourselves up for unnecessary disappointment-and sometimes blame ourselves or others for things the Bible never promised.

Don't Turn Scripture into a Treasure Hunt

There's another temptation: searching for a sentence that supports what we've already decided God should do.

We all have a preferred version of the future. I do. We'd love to find a verse that guarantees it.

But Scripture is not a box of fortune cookies.

Some promises were given specifically to Abraham, Israel, Joshua, or another person in a particular covenant and situation. We can learn from those promises without pretending we are the original audience. Other promises describe what God gives to all who belong to Christ.

When I was younger, I thought Israel's wilderness wandering meant the people had simply gotten lost. The story is more searching than that. Numbers 14 connects that wilderness generation's loss with unbelief and refusal to trust God. Joshua is receiving a commission within that particular story, not a blank check for whatever I would like to own.

Context matters. Who was speaking? To whom? What was actually promised? And how does the passage fit within the larger story of Scripture?

Even Jesus refuses to use Scripture as an excuse to demand that God perform on command. When tempted to throw himself from the temple, he answers with another passage: we must not put the Lord to the test (Matthew 4:7).

Faith isn't giving God instructions and calling them promises.

Trust Doesn't Mean You Know the Schedule

When Joshua's generation entered the land, the promise was old. Really old. Generations had lived and died waiting for that day.

That alone should give us some humility about our timelines.

We like to imagine that if God has something good for us, it should arrive promptly. Ideally before lunch. But the story of Joshua doesn't give us a formula for getting what we want quickly.

It invites us to trust God's faithfulness as we take the next obedient step.

Joshua still had to lead. The people still had to move. The land wasn't going to show up on their doorstep. And as we'll see throughout the book, their journey involved setbacks, fear, failures, and hard work.

God's faithfulness didn't remove the need for their participation.

What Promise Are You Actually Holding On To?

Maybe there's a dream you believe God placed in your heart. It's okay to bring that to him. Ask him about it. Invite wise people to pray and discern with you.

But also ask whether your confidence is anchored in something God has said or something you really want him to say.

And don't miss the promises that are already ours in Christ: his presence, his grace, forgiveness, the work of his Spirit, the hope of resurrection, and the invitation to grow in relationship with him.

Those aren't small consolation prizes while we wait for something better. They are the heart of the Christian life.

The greatest promise isn't that every plan of ours will succeed. It's that we can trust the God who meets us along the way.

And sometimes that trust begins when we stop trying to claim a particular outcome and start asking, God, what are you teaching me about who you are?