God's Promises

"Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations. The LORD is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made."

Psalm 145:13

I've already shared with you a little bit about the ladies retreat from this past weekend, but I wanted to share one more post about "Promises of God".

During each retreat four different ladies speak to the group (actually this time one session was a mother-daughter team, so there were five).  Two ladies do longer lessons and two do shorter devotionals.  It is always so interesting and inspiring to see how the four ladies choose to present their lesson.  Each lady is given the theme title, but then they come up with their own lesson and they don't communicate with each other about the direction they are going in their lesson.  Each lady has their own style of teaching, just like each of the ladies in the audience have a different style of listening and learning.  I'm always amazed at how God works and uses each of the speakers as a vessel to pour out His Word to all of us in a different way.

This year one of the speakers talked about something not-so-good in her life - an illness.  She talked about how God turned the illness, which she has lived with for 10 years,  into something good - revealing His promises throughout the illness.  She shared with us the following poem:

GOD HATH NOT PROMISED

God hath not promised

skies always blue,

Flower-strewn pathways

all our lives through.

God hath not promised

sun without rain,

Joy without sorrow,

peace without pain.

But God hath promised

strength for the day,

Rest for the labor,

Light for the way

Grace for the trials

Help from above,

Unfailing sympathy,

Undying love.

Written by Annie J. Flint

God promises to be with His children (Christians - called according to HIS purpose...see verse below).  Not that everything is good or is what we might want, but that He will be with us, even through the bad.  He promises that He will work it out for the good, even though we may not completely understand.

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God,  to them that are the called according to his purpose."

Romans 8:28 

Thank you, God, for always keeping your promises!