Theme: To gain a better understanding of God’s faithfulness to His promises – your
trust in them-and receiving the blessings of them..
Introduction: In this Bible Study you will gain a greater understanding of your Father’s faithfulness. When you realize that he won’t fail to keep His promises you will put your complete confidence in His Word to you. As you renew your mind to the Scriptures in this lesson, you’ll realize that God’s Word is trustworthy. Your Heavenly Father will not allow His Word to fail so you can trust Him to receive the promises.
I. How faithful is God to His promises?
Before you can really trust in what He has promised you must be absolutely convinced that God is faithful to His Word. In Hebrews 11:11 you can see an example of a person who was confident of God’s faithfulness. “Because of faith also Sarah herself received physical power to conceive a child, even when she was long past the age for it, because she considered (God) who had given her the promise to be reliable and trustworthy and true to His Word” (AMP).
What God had promised Sarah seemed impossible in the natural realm of thinking, but Sarah was still able to put her trust in His promises. Why? She was convinced God would remain faithful to His Word. She was confident that He was able to perform what He had promised.
Only through God’s Word are you able to know the character of your Heavenly Father.
II. What do these Scriptures reveal about God’s character?
1 Corinthians 1:9, God is faithful, through whom ye were called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. The word faithful means reliable or trustworthy.
Psalm 145:13, “The Lord is faithful to all his promises” (NIV).
Psalm 138:2, “I will worship toward your holy temple, and praise your name for your loving kindness and your truth and faithfulness: for you have exalted above all else your name and your word and you have magnified your word above your name” (AMP). Because God wants you to be totally convinced of the integrity of his Word, he has exalted it above his name. If his Word fails then he himself fails. However, the bible teaches that it is impossible for him to prove false and lie to his people. He will be faithful to always perform what he has promised.
Psalm 138:2 in the Living Bible states, “I face your temple as I worship, giving thanks to you for all your loving kindness and your faithfulness, for your promises are backed by all the honor of your name.” A promise is only as good as the person who makes it, people are known by what they do. The word honor means that a man of honor always keeps his promises. In the Living Bible Hebrews 6:17-18 states, “God also bound himself with an oath, so that those he promised to help would be perfectly sure and never need to wonder whether he might change his plans. He has given us both his promise and his oath, two things we can completely count on, for it impossible for God to tell a lie.”
Numbers 23:19 tells this great truth again. “God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill? (NIV)
Psalm 89:33-34, “Nevertheless, my loving kindness will I not break off from him, nor allow my faithfulness to fail (to lie and be false to him). My covenant will I not break or profane, nor altar the thing that is gone out of my lips (AMP).
Hebrews 10:23, “So let us seize and hold fast and refrain without wavering the hope we cherish and confess and our acknowledgment of it, for he who promised is reliable (sure) and faithful to his word” (AMP) The actions this scripture tell you to take concerning your hope in God’s promise. Seize – take possession of,Hold Fast – grasp firmly (don’t let go)Retain without wavering – to keep in mind without hesitating or doubting.Confess – to declare openly and speak out freely about (your faith in God’s promises.Acknowledgment of it – act of admitting that something is true. You can hold on to God’s promises without hesitating or doubting, and you can confidently confess them to be true in your life because God, who has given you these promises is reliable and trustworthy and faithful to his Word.
III. What has God promised you?
Psalm 34:4, Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart (AMP).
Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it (KJV)
Numbers 23:19, “God is not a man that he should lie nor a son of men that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill it”? (NIV)
Do you firmly trust that he will fulfill his promises in your life? Trusting means to have faith, to believe and depend upon. According to the Moffett translation of Hebrews 11:1 “faith” means to be confident of what you ;hope for and convinced of what you cannot see. When you are truly trusting in God’s promises, you are confident that what you hope for will become a reality in your life. 2 Corinthians 4:13, “It is written; I believed, therefore have I spoken” With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak.
IV. What are the two parts of faith?
Believing in your heart and confessing with your mouth – FAITH. If you really put your trust in God, then you will speak in agreement with what he has promised. Trust means a confident expectation. If you are trusting in God’s promises, you confidently expect him to fulfill them in your life. If you are just hoping that something will happen, you are not at the point of fully trusting. Your heart and mind will have perfect peace when you are truly putting your trust in God.
Isaiah 26:3-4, “You will guard him and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose mind is stayed upon you, because he commits himself to you, leans on you and hopes confidently in you. So trust in the Lord…commit yourself to him, lean on him, hope confidently in him – forever, for the Lord is an everlasting rock – the rock of ages” (AMP).
Philippians 4:6-7, “Don’t worry about anything, instead pray about everything: tell God your needs and don’t forget to thank him for his answers. If you do this you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will keep your thoughts and your hearts quiet and at rest as you trust in Christ Jesus” (TLB).
You can’t think about the problem and the promise at the same time. One will give you peace (God’s promise). The other will give you worry and fear (your concern).