July 27, Morning

C. H. Spurgeon · Modern retelling

"Exceeding great and precious promises." — 2 Peter 1:4 · KJV

If you would know by experience the preciousness of the promises and enjoy them in your heart, meditate much upon them. Some promises are like grapes in the winepress: tread them and the juice will flow. Thinking over the hallowed words is often the prelude to their fulfillment; while you muse upon them, the boon you seek insensibly comes to you. Many a Christian thirsting for a promise has found its favor gently distilling into his soul even while he considered the divine record, and rejoiced that he was led to lay it near his heart. But besides meditating on the promises, seek to receive them as the very words of God. Say to your soul, "If I dealt with a man's promise, I should weigh the ability and character of him who covenanted with me. So with the promise of God: my eye must be fixed not so much on the greatness of the mercy — that may stagger me — as on the greatness of the Promiser, which will cheer me. It is God, even my God, God that cannot lie, who speaks to me. This word I now consider is as true as His own existence. He is unchangeable; He has not altered the thing that has gone out of His mouth, nor called back one consoling sentence. Nor does He lack power — it is the God that made heaven and earth who has spoken. Nor can He fail in wisdom as to the time, for He knows when it is best to give and when better to withhold. Therefore, seeing it is the word of a God so true, so immutable, so powerful, so wise, I will and must believe the promise." If we thus meditate, and consider the Promiser, we shall taste the sweetness of the promises and obtain their fulfillment.