Genesis 13:14 The LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.” So Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the LORD.
Those are best prepared for the visits of Divine grace, whose spirits are calm, and not ruffled with passion. God will abundantly make up in spiritual peace, what we lose for preserving neighbourly peace. When our relations are separated from us, yet God is not. Observe also the promises with which God now comforted and enriched Abram. Of two things he assures him; a good land, and a numerous issue to enjoy it. The prospects seen by faith are more rich and beautiful than those we see around us. God bade him walk through the land, not to think of fixing in it, but expect to be always unsettled, and walking through it to a better Canaan. He built an altar, in token of his thankfulness to God. When God meets us with gracious promises, he expects that we should attend him with humble praises. In outward difficulties, it is very profitable for the true believer to mediate on the glorious inheritance which the Lord has for him at the last.(Henry)
Promises are given to us by God….hope, peace, joy, forgiveness, shelter, love, grace, mercy, refuge, courage…..eternal life. These promises, as such, can only be fulfilled and proclaimed by God alone. The world will try to make like promises but has no means to follow through on them. God can and does follow through on His promises. All of God’s promises have one thing in common for the recipient – obedience. Without obedience these promises are void. Without faith these promises are meaningless. A person can claim to know of the promise of eternal life and actually believe they have it while never living in obedience, repenting of their sin, or following, trusting, and relying on Jesus Christ. The promise of forgiveness of sin, eternal life, joy for today, and hope for tomorrow requires repentance, acknowledging and turning away from sin, and complete faith, trust, and reliance in Jesus Christ. There are no substitutions for the obedience requirements associated with the promises of God. Suffice it to say, just as there are promises of eternal life through obedience, there are promises for lives of disobedience – eternal hell and torment. To deny the promise of eternal hell and torment cancels the need for the promise of eternal life. Watering down or lessening obedience under the guise of God’s promises of grace, mercy, and love alone without the need for continued obedience and life-changing repentance, and faith-filled acts of honoring and glorifying Jesus Christ in all thoughts, words, and deeds are nothing more than man’s attempt to gain the promises of God while living apart from Him and obedient reliance in Him.
Do not think for a single minute that the promises of God are separated from continued growing obedience to Him.
