The Lord is Nigh
Continuing our “Promises of God”, we will consider six more in this article. The first of these we will find in Psalms 145:18: “The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call him in truth.”
The people of the world seldom call upon God except in time of dire calamity. But nominal Christians do give Him empty lip service. The majority of them overlook the condition presented in this Scripture that they must call upon Him in truth. In time of war they declare that God is on their side, and ask Him to bless their armies, even if those they are hoping to kill are supposed to be Christians, too. They ask Him for money, houses, fame and position, although the Bible tells us that the followers of Christ are not supposed to petition God for these things. As the author heard one devoted minister say several years ago, their prayers go no higher than the ceiling of the room in which they are presented.
And even we, His children, must call upon Him in truth if we wish for Him to hear us. We take this to mean that we should approach God with reverence and ask Him first for spiritual things, that we may glorify Him and serve Him by our lives and work in the Truth. When we ask for needful things, we must be certain that they are needful and necessary, and remember that God has said that if we first seek the kingdom of heaven, all these things will be added unto us. (Matthew 6:33) “Does he not clothe the grass of the field and feed the ravens,” asks Jesus and then continues, “How much more will he clothe you, 0 ye of little faith?” (See Matthew 7:25-34)
Sometimes we are inclined to think that God does not answer some of our prayers. Yes, He does answer them, but perhaps not always in the way we wish them to be answered. God, in His wisdom, may see that the things we ask for are not really necessary, and that eventually they would be detrimental to us if we received them. A child might ask his mother for a glittering knife because it dazzles him and he wants it. But she does not give it to him because it is not for his best good that she should so do. So it often is with us. We must come to God in unwavering confidence and trust, knowing that “all things work together for good to those who love God . . . ” (Romans 8:28), and that a complete withholding may be the best answer to our prayer. (For a complete analysis of the subject of prayer, see the booklet entitled, “Making Prayer Powerful” by H. P. Mansfield of Adelaide, Australia.
Be not afraid
We come now to the second promise, Proverbs 3:24-26: “When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid: yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet. Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked when it cometh. For the Lord shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy feet from being taken.”
Have you ever gone to your rest at night and been unable to sleep because of the fears that haunted you—fear of death and sickness, fear of old age, poverty and helplessness ? Have you been so depressed and blue that you felt as if you no longer had any friends, and that all the powers of the universe were arrayed against you to afflict you in one way or another? If you have, then, most likely, you endeavored to banish this grim enemy by repeating over and over statements something like the following: “This is wrong. I must Not feel this way. I will Not be afraid, I simply Will Not.” But the fears kept pressing relentlessly down upon you until eventually you became aware of the fact that you were attempting to fight this battle in your own feeble strength, and remembered that God has told His children that they need not be afraid, the “angel of the Lord encampeth around about those that fear (reverence) him, and delivereth them” (Psalms 4:7). When these fears plague us it is well to repeat the 23rd Psalm all the way through, emphasizing the thought in every verse, with particular emphasis on those that deal with our most formidable enemy, death: “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” We are also told that the eternal God is our refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. Although these words were spoken to Asher by Moses (Deuteronomy 33:27), they likewise apply to us in these troublous times. So we must never allow fear to get a strangle hold upon us, because we know that God is our refuge, no matter how severe the trial we must undergo, and that He is supporting us in His everlasting arms. With these comforting thoughts, our sleep can indeed be sweet.
This text also tells us that we need not be afraid of sudden fear. We take this to mean some great catastrophe such as an earthquake, fire, bombs, etc. Things such as this bring a certain amount of fear to everyone; but we as God’s children, need not be unduly afraid, even of them. Like Jesus we are immune from death or harm until our time comes, and our work is finished. But if it should be our time, and one of these disasters should mean death to us, as David has so beautifully expressed it, the Lord will be with us even then. We will pass safely through the dark valley, and wake in the morning when Jesus comes.
A bountiful eye shall be blessed
We find our third promise in Proverbs 22:9: “He that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed; for he giveth of his bread to the poor.”
Having a bountiful eye does not necessarily mean that we are blessed with much of this world’s goods. It is usually people in ordinary walks of life who come to the rescue of their stricken neighbors. Certainly the rich donate thousands to foundations, scholarships, hospitals, libraries, etc., and their generosity is to be commended, even though their right hand DOES know what the left is doing. But if we bountifully give, not out of abundance, but out of our meager store, and do NOT let our right hand know what the left is doing, it seems that we never miss it, because God blesses us in so many other ways. The greatest gifts that we must give, however, are love and deep compassion, even though we feel that we ourselves are in need of these things. The more we are in need of compassion and love, the more we should bestow them upon others, and when we do so, our heaviest burdens seem miraculously to disappear. “They that cast their bread upon the waters shall find it after many days” (Ecclesiastes 11:1).
Scarlet sins made white
Our fourth promise is found in Isaiah 1:18: “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”
Most of us have not committed any of the grosser sins. But all of us, in one way or another, have broken one or more of the commandments of Christ. We have all fallen short and are in need of His cleansing blood. But suppose we have committed some dreadful deed such as murder, assault or something else in this category which has cast us out from among respectable citizens, is there any hope for us then ? The above scripture assures us that there is. If we truly repent and turn our backs forever on our evil acts, He will forgive us, and they shall become as white as snow or shall be as wool. Before any of us who may think that we are righteous look down upon such a sinner, let us remember the Pharisee and the publican who went into the temple to pray. It was the sinful publican who received forgiveness and not the self-righteous Pharisee.
Quiet strength
The fifth promise is found in Isaiah 30:15: “. . . In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.”
This text promises strength, and tells us how to attain it. We are not going to receive it in turbulence and confusion, but in quietness. What does this mean to us? It means that we must have some quiet time in which to study His Word, seek Him in prayer, and appropriate His love and the promises He has given us. We must not let Anything keep us from this quiet time. It may be early in the morning before we go to work, or before we begin our daily chores; or it might be when we are ready to retire for the night and the noise and confusion of the day are over. If we endeavor to have this quiet time during the course of the day, there will be endless interruptions and annoyances, and it is better to set aside a certain time for communion with our God. It is in this way that we will gain the promised strength.
We must also come to Him in confidence, knowing that He hears us always. The Bible tells us in James 1:16 that we must ask in faith ‘nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.” If a wave is driven with the wind and tossed, it isn’t very stable, is it? And if our mind wavers in unbelief or fear, it likewise is not stable, and God will not hear us, for we “must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6). We must have absolute and unwavering faith that He will answer our prayer in the way that He sees best.
The sixth promise is found in Isaiah 55:1: “Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.”
Is there anything in this world as it is today that we can buy without money and without price? Have you ever longed for a real vacation at some beautiful, unattainable place, a home, a car, or some of the comforts of life that tend to make it easier to bear the monotonous humdrum of every-day living? Was there anybody in the world (outside of your own dear ones, of course) who would give it to you? Many doctors will not help a suffering patient who has not sufficient money to pay for his services, no matter how much the man or woman might need his help. But there is something vastly more precious than any earthly thing that can be had absolutely without money and without price, and that is the love of God, His forgiveness and justification, and the knowledge that we, as His children, are heirs to the glory of God’s kingdom which so far exceeds any passing worldly glory that nothing can be compared to it. The people of the world struggle valiantly for the so-called valuable rewards this earth has to offer, only to find that they are not worth a single day’s time or worry, that the “night is far spent and the day is at hand” and they have nothing to show for a wasted life. Let us be wiser than they and partake of the living waters that are given without money and without price, so that we need never thirst again.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One