Have you, too, been known to fall for a slick marketing claim that sounded too good to resist? Social media feeds, television, and the internet are saturated with outlandish promises designed to entice women to put their faith in “miracle” products. Advertisers push pills, creams, and diets endorsed by celebrities or physicians that promise to melt body fat overnight, lose fifty pounds without leaving your couch, and take ten years off your face in seven days. (Yeah, right.)
Some of these companies have been caught red-handed misleading, exaggerating, and lying to consumers. They’ve paid millions in fines and lawsuits because their promises don’t hold up. It’s no wonder many of us are skeptical of brand promises. If it’s too good to be true—then yes—it’s often too good to be true.
But you can throw away your need for that common sense logic when it comes to the promises of God. You can let down your guard because every promise God makes is 100 percent trustworthy. His unchanging nature means He simply cannot break a promise He makes. People break promises every day, but God our Father is not like us. He is a covenant promise-keeper bound by love.
Grab Hold of Trustworthy Promises
Looking through a human lens, God’s promises can sound far-fetched. (Abraham and Sarah thought so too.) Some are hard to fathom as being true. (Did building an ark give Noah pause?) There are divine promises that we believe with our minds but neglect to embrace personally. Have you found yourself (as I have) quoting them confidently to someone else while your own heart wavers?
Charles H. Spurgeon, the 19th-century renowned English pastor, treasured God’s promises. He wrote:
[A believer] is to treat the promise as a reality, as a man treats a cheque. He is to take the promise, and endorse it with his own name by personally receiving it as true. He is by faith to accept it as his own . . . he must plead it by prayer, expecting to have it fulfilled.
Without repeated reminders of God’s “very great and precious promises” (2 Peter 1:4), women who lead can lose hope and perspective. The promises are the daily banquet that nourishes our souls and renews our minds. They keep us going when we inch closer to the edge of giving up. They radiate light in the raging tempest. They provide spiritual understanding to the bewildered. Promises comfort heads bowed in grief and restore the weary.
Sister, whatever circumstances you find yourself in today, there’s a promise that will sustain you. His Word never has and never will fail. As you receive fresh faith in these five promises, look intently for the tangible ways God is fulfilling His promises to you.
5 Promises for Leaders to Live By
1. When You’ve Lost Perspective: The Promise of Reward
The Christian life is hard. It requires running your race when your hands feel arthritic and your weakened bones are out of joint. In some ways, life for the ministry worker feels even harder—but for the grace and kindness of God. With our eyes squarely fixed on Jesus, He enables us to persevere. Choosing the long view, our hearts are filled with joy and expectation for the glorious moment when we will cross the finish line.
For God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you demonstrated for his name by serving the saints—and by continuing to serve them. —Hebrews 6:10
2. When You’re in Way over Your Head: The Promise of Provision
If the water is rising above your head and you are drowning, that’s a reason to panic. But when you’re a servant of the Lord God, paradoxically, it’s a safe and secure position. God never wants us to outgrow our desperate need for Him. He purposefully calls us to assignments which we lack the necessary resources and gifts. Why? So we will look up, to the Source of all we need. The One who never takes His eyes off you rescues His children.
His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. —2 Peter 1:3
3. When You Don’t Have What It Takes: The Promise of Competency
Other leaders seem to do their jobs with ease. They always know the right words to say at the right time. They’re proficient Bible teachers and run circles around everyone else with their leadership skills. We wonder why God doesn’t make us more like the people we put on a pedestal. Competency for ministry isn’t found by looking inward. The surrendered servant finds her competency in Christ alone. She has nothing to prove to anyone.
Such is the confidence we have through Christ before God. It is not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God. —2 Corinthians 3:4–5
4. When You Have Nothing Left to Give: The Promise of Filling
There are days when ministry just feels like too much and tomorrow promises to be more of the same. To disciple and invest in people requires a constant outpouring; humans simply don’t have an adequate reservoir. We are frail and finite by design—but not without. For there is a never-ending river of life that overflows its banks to fill you with the exact measure you need (Psalm 46:4).
A generous person will be enriched, and the one who gives a drink of water will receive water. —Proverbs 11:25
5. When Nothing Is Happening: The Promise of Fruitfulness
While a gardener waits for seeds to sprout, it feels like forever before a green stem finally pushes through. To the human eye, it appears nothing is growing under the soil. When all we see is lifeless dirt, discouragement creeps in like unwanted weeds. Scripture says, “without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb. 11:6), so we remember His unseen hand is always working on our behalf. Take heart: perseverance will result in a harvest.
Let us not get tired of doing good, for we will reap at the proper time if we don’t give up. —Galatians 6:9
Grab Hold with Both Hands
We need God’s promises today, tomorrow, and each day following. We’ll never outlive the need to walk in faith relying on the everlasting promises. Keep them close to your heart. Like a laser pointer, the promises show us Jesus who embodies and fulfills each one. They are “yes and amen” through Him (2 Cor. 1:20).
As you move forward in your ministry tasks, let the promises steady your feet on the solid ground of Christ, anchoring your soul to what is good, true, and right. No matter what comes our way, may we show others how to grab hold of the promises with both hands and never let go.