Being Precious Promises Arranged For Daily Use With Brief Experimental Comments.
Preface.
A PROMISE from God may very instructively be compared to a cheque
payable to order. It is given to the believer with the view of bestowing
upon him some good thing. It is not meant that he should read it over
comfortably, and then have done with it. No, he is to treat the promise as a
reality, as a man treats a cheque
He is to take the promise, and endorse it with his own name by personally
receiving it as true. He is by faith to accept it as his own. He sets to his seal
that God is true, and true as to this particular word of promise. He goes
further, and believes that he has the blessing in having the sure promise of
it, and therefore he puts his name to it to testify to the receipt of the
blessing.
This done, he must believingly present the promise to the Lord, as a man
presents a cheque at the counter of the Bank. He must plead it by prayer,
expecting to have it fulfilled. If he has come to Heaven's bank at the right
date, he will receive the promised amount at once. If the date should
happen to be further on, he must patiently wait till its arrival; but
meanwhile he may count the promise as money, for the Bank is sure to pay
when the due time arrives.
Some fail to place the endorsement of faith upon the cheque, and so they get
nothing; and others are slack in presenting it, and these also receive
nothing. This is not the fault of the promise, but of those who do not act
with it in a common-sense, business-like manner.
God has given no pledge which He will not redeem, and encouraged no
hope which He will not fulfill. To help my brethren to believe this, I have
prepared this little volume. The sight of the promises themselves is good
for the eyes of faith: the more we study the words of grace, the more grace
shall we derive from the words. To the cheering Scriptures I have added
testimonies of my own, the fruit of trial and experience. I believe all the
promises of God, but many of them I have personally tried and proved. I
have seen that they are true, for they have been fulfilled to me. This, I trust,
may be cheering to the young; and not without solace to the older sort.
One man's experience may be of the utmost use to another; and this is why
the man of God of old wrote, "I sought the Lord, and he heard me"; and
again, "This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him."
I commenced these daily portions when I was wading in the surf of
controversy. Since then I have been cast into "waters to swim in," which,
but for God's upholding hand, would have proved waters to drown in. I
have endured tribulation from many flails. Sharp bodily pain succeeded
mental depression, and this was accompanied both by bereavement, and
affliction in the person of one dear as life. The waters rolled in continually,
wave upon wave. I do not mention this to exact sympathy, but simply to let
the reader see that I am no dry-land sailor. I have traversed full many a
time those oceans which are not Pacific: I know the roll of the billows, and
the rush of the winds. Never were the promises of Jehovah so precious to
me as at this hour. Some of them I never understood till now; I had not
reached the date at which they matured, for I was not myself mature
enough to perceive their meaning.
How much more wonderful is the Bible to me now than it was a few
months ago! In obeying the Lord, and bearing His reproach outside the
camp, I have not received new promises; but the result to me is much the
same as if I had done so, for the old ones have opened up to me with richer
stores. Specially has the Word of the Lord to His servant Jeremiah sounded
exceedingly sweet in mine ears. His lot it was to speak to those who would
not hear, or hearing, would not believe. His was the sorrow which comes
of disappointed love, and resolute loyalty; he would have turned his people
from their errors, but he would not himself quit the way of the Lord. For
him there were words of deep sustaining power, which kept his mind from
failing where nature unaided must have sunk. These and such like golden
sentences of grace I have loved more than my necessary food, and with
them I have enriched these pages.
Oh, that I might comfort some of my Master's servants! I have written out
of my own heart with the view of comforting their hearts. I would say to
them in their trials - My brethren, God is good. He will not forsake you:
He will bear you through. There is a promise prepared for your present
emergencies; and if you will believe and plead it at the mercy-seat through
Jesus Christ, you shall see the hand of the Lord stretched out to help you.
Everything else will fail, but His word never will. He has been to me so
faithful in countless instances that I must encourage you to trust Him. I
should be ungrateful to God and unkind to you if I did not do so.
May the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, inspire the people of the Lord with
fresh faith! I know that, without His divine power, all that I can say will be
of no avail; but, under His quickening influence, even the humblest
testimony will confirm feeble knees, and strengthen weak hands. God is
glorified when His servants trust Him implicitly. We cannot be too much of
children with our heavenly Father. Our young ones ask no question about
our will or our power, but having once received a promise from father,
they rejoice in the prospect of its fulfillment, never doubting that it is sure
as the sun. May many readers, whom I may never see, discover the duty
and delight of such child-like trust in God while they are reading the little
bit which I have prepared for each day in the year.
For long years several thousands of God's people have read my MORNING
BY MORNING and EVENING BY EVENING, and many of them have been
good enough to write me, and acknowledge the benefit of such a perusal I
hope this little book will not interfere with those volumes. These daily
portions are gathered from a more varied range of topics, and are all the
more profitable because they deal with doctrine, experience, practice, and
everything else. This is a sweetmeat of promise only, and it must not
interfere with the fuller meals: nay, rather, I hope it will excite a desire for
them.
May our Lord Jesus accept this my service for His sheep and lambs, from
His unworthy Servant,
C.H. Spurgeon
Publisher's Comments.
Three hundred and sixty five encouraging Bible promises, arranged for daily
use, provide helpful reading for personal and family devotions. the brief, indexed meditations
draw from forty-nine different Bible books, discuss a wide variety of interesting topics, and
offer invaluable illustrative material.
Charles H. Spurgeon, widely respected preacher and author, compares
a Bible promise with a cheque. The believer is to treat the promise as a reality, as a man treats a cheque.
He is to .... endorse the promise with his own name by personally receiving it as true.
Faith's Chequebook provides one year's worth of dependable guarantees
from the Word of God. It will comfort all who take the trouble to cash in on it.
(After the search use the back key to return from the "BibleGateway" page to the "Swanny Swaggy" page.)
A PROMISE from God may very instructively be compared to a cheque
payable to order. It is given to the believer with the view of bestowing
upon him some good thing. It is not meant that he should read it over
comfortably, and then have done with it. No, he is to treat the promise as a
reality, as a man treats a cheque