(devotional from OurPrayer.org)

The Bible is filled with verses that promise you God’s help in times of trouble. But it’s up to you to activate these promises. Here’s how:

1.    Don’t be afraid to ask. It’s what God wants you to do! “Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver you” (Psalm 50:15). “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you” (John 15:7). Like Jesus himself, pray (always!) for God’s will: “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us” (1 John 5:14).

2.    Do what God leads you to do. Prayer and faith must never be substitutes for action. The Savior who spent so much time praying also devoted himself to teaching and ministering to people’s needs. James 2:17 reminds us: “Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”

3.    Remember: You cannot harvest unless you first plant seeds. The Message translates Galatians 6:7-8 to read: “Don’t be mislead. No one makes a fool of God. The person who plants foolishness, ignoring the needs of other—ignoring God!—harvests a crop of weeds…But the one who plants in response to God, letting God’s Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life.” What seeds of goodness can you plant today?

4.    Speak God’s promises and blessings into life. Human words have immense power. “The tongue has the power of life and death” (Proverbs 18:21). Our words can bless or destroy. Claim God’s promises as your own (even inserting your name!) and speak them aloud. Here are a few to get you started:

•    “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).
•    “God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).
•    It is God who “forgives all your sin and heals all your diseases” (Psalm 103:3).

John 6:63-68 (NASB)

⁶³“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.

⁶⁴“But there are some of you who do not believe ” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him.

⁶⁵And He was saying, “For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.”

⁶⁶As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore.

⁶⁷So Jesus said to the twelve, “You do not want to go away also, do you?”

⁶⁸Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life.

Warning! There are lots of voices clamoring to be heard today, and they give out messages that conflict with one another. Sorting through them to find the truth can be complicated because many of these speakers claim to have messages from the Lord. Comparing their words to Scripture is the best way to test the authenticity of their speech.

Why use the Bible? The first reason is that the Lord took great care to be sure that Scripture was recorded accurately—the Holy Spirit directed the hearts and minds of the biblical writers. (2 Peter 1:21) Second, because “All Scripture is . . . profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16). God’s Word is the main source for His truth. He will never send a messenger with words that contradict the Bible or add new doctrine to it.

Our Father cares deeply for us. He is interested in everything about us and wants to be intimately involved in all areas of our life. He speaks words of love, affirmation, guidance, and discipline to us. He patiently corrects our thinking and steadily urges us toward obedience. Because the Lord wants us to know Him personally, He takes the time and makes the effort to reveal Himself to us individually. Through His Word and the ministry of the Holy Spirit, He tells us what He loves, what He hates, His priorities for building His kingdom, and His will for us.

Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (John 10:27). Does this describe you?

(devotional from In Touch Ministries)

2 Corinthians 1:20 (NIV)

²⁰For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.

By nature, God is a promiser. He’s made a ton of them to His children. A promise is the assurance that God gives to His people so they can walk by faith while they wait for Him to work.

You don’t realize how much you need God’s promises until your smooth and easy life suddenly turns sideways. This is the time to dig into God’s Word and get something to wrap your faith around.

Now the Christian life would be easy if the space in time is small between when you claim God’s promises and when you receive what He promised. Read it one day and get it the next. Wow – wouldn’t that be great!?

But life’s not like that.

The hard part is in the waiting between the promise and the answer; and even harder, when the waiting comes with uncertainties.

Where’s this going? Where am I going to end up? What’s my future look like?

The reality is, we just don’t know and it’s this not-knowing that crushes us. We doubt because we don’t know. We worry and despair because we don’t know. We falter and sometimes fail – all because we don’t know. If only we knew how this trial was going to play out, we would be OK. But we don’t.

I can take a bad day. I can take a bad month. I can even take a bad year or bad decade, if I have to, as long as I know how it will end up. For some of you it’s a health crisis. For another, it’s a question about your marriage or an uncertainty with a child. For someone else, it’s a restlessness in your soul. We all have areas of uncertainty where we need to hold on to what God has said. His promises are what we cling to while we wait for Him to work. Our faith is in God. He knows what He has promised, He can’t lie, and He can’t forget. He will deliver on time, all the time. Who else can make promises like that?

Now I wish I could tell you that it always figures out perfectly in our lifetimes, but I would be lying to you. You cannot make sense of the promises of God with this life only. You must factor the reality of eternity into the equation. Eternity brings it all together. The promises of eternal life and the assurance of hope in heaven are what make God’s promises exceedingly great and precious.
–James MacDonald

“God, forgive us for thinking that everything must make sense today in the economy of our human satisfaction. Give us faith to believe that we’re here for a purpose that is greater than ourselves, greater than our personal enjoyment, even greater than our participation in building Your kingdom. Our lives are about a legacy-Your glory. Amen.”

• Name a promise that God has made to You in His Word that You need to remember today.
• What promise do you cling to that will only make sense in eternity?

(devotional from Christianity.com)

You might be surprised, but God has made you many promises.  But they’re promises that you have to claim in order to receive. Yes, God has in fact made hundreds of promises in His Word to those who profess to be Christians.

But many of these promises are conditional or limited. This means that you and I may have to meet certain conditions or do our part before God can act on our behalf. “If you do this,” God says, “I’ll do this.” Our response determines His actions.

When you read in your Bible and you see the words “gift” or “given,” or the words “then” or “if,” you need to back up. If you see these, you know you may have a promise that you can biblically claim…scripture that you can appropriate for your life.

As Paul tells us in Ephesians 4:7-8:

But to each one of us, grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it says, ‘When He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, and He gave gifts to men.’

A lot of folks don’t know the promises of God and don’t know the blessing and inheritance that is available to them. And if they do, they may misuse a promise.

A good way to navigate the promises of God is to think of a 3-legged stool. You have to know about the promise – that is one leg of the stool. You have to understand the promise – that is another leg of the stool. And then you have to biblically and accurately claim the promise – that’s the third leg of the stool.

A good template to see if you can biblically claim one of God’s promises revolves around four key words: Understand, Ask, Claim, and Act.

1. Understand the context of the verse. Understand what was going on in the verses before and after the verse with a promise. What was the situation, the setting, the timing, what was happening? Ask the basic questions – who, what, when, where why?

2. Ask the critical questions. Ask if the promise is conditional or unconditional? Is the promise limited or unlimited? Is there an “if, then” stated? Is the promise for someone specific in the Bible? Ask the critical questions.

3. Claim the promise. When you claim a promise, you exercise your faith. By faith, stand on the promise of God and believe in Him.

4. Act on the promise. You believe, then you act. You proceed in faith and move ahead.

Understand, Ask, Claim, Act. Remember to use this template to discern when God has made a promise to you and how you are able to receive it.

The great news is that God keeps His word. Throughout the Bible, without exception, God keeps each and every promise ever made. That should give us great confidence to exercise our faith in God’s promises and lead a life of new blessings and transformation.

(from Christianity.com)