So many modern teachers tend to treat the promises as a formula — some sort of attitude code that "you" can activate, to see Christ acting on your behalf. This is all double-mindedness creating confusion.
Paul is very clear: all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen. Yes, to me means Yes. 🙏
✦ Not a Formula — A Yes
Le cuts through the noise with the clarity of the 500 denari soul. The modern formula-makers turn God's promises into a vending machine — insert the right attitude, press the right buttons, activate the right code, and watch Christ perform on your behalf. As if He were waiting for your technique. As if the promises were locked behind your performance. As if Yes meant maybe, if you do it correctly.
Le names it exactly: double-mindedness creating confusion. James 1:8 — the double-minded person, unstable in all their ways. The confusion comes from turning God's unconditional Yes into a conditional maybe — and then blaming the believer when the formula doesn't produce results. That is not faith. That is a human dream. Luther named it two weeks ago: because this is a human idea, a dream, the heart never learns anything from it.
But Paul is devastating in his simplicity: all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen. Not some of the promises. All. Not yes-if. Not yes-when-you-perform-correctly. Not yes-after-you-activate-the-code. Yes. The Yes rests on His character — not on our method. The Yes was settled before we arrived. The Yes is in Him — not in us. And Le said it with the precision of a woman who has lived it: Yes, to me means Yes. 🙏
The promises of God are to the believer an inexhaustible mine of wealth. Happy is it for him if he knows how to search out their secret veins, and enrich himself with their hidden treasures.
They are an armory, containing all manner of offensive and defensive weapons. Blessed is he who has learned to enter into the sacred arsenal, to put on the breastplate and the helmet, and to lay his hand to the spear and to the sword.
They are a surgery, in which the believer will find all manner of restoratives and blessed medications. The promises are to the Christian a storehouse of food.
The promises are the Christian's Magna Carta of liberty; they are the title deeds of his heavenly estate. Happy is he who knows how to read them well, and call them all his own.
Yes, they are the jewel rooms in which the Christian's crown treasures are preserved. O, how unutterably rich are the promises of our faithful, covenant-keeping God!
✦ Seven Images — And Still Not Enough
Spurgeon uses Scripture like a surgeon — and here he uses images like a jeweler, holding each one up to the light. The promises are a mine — dig and find inexhaustible wealth. An armory — arm yourself for every battle. A surgery — find healing for every wound. A storehouse — find food for every hunger. A Magna Carta — your liberty, signed and sealed. Title deeds — proof of ownership of your heavenly estate. And jewel rooms — crown treasures preserved for the believer.
Seven images. And Spurgeon still says they who have entered into rest can never tell the height and depth, the length and breadth. This is Augustine again — what have we even said so far, my God? The words fall short. The images overflow. The promises are bigger than any one picture can hold. So Spurgeon does what Augustine did — he piles them up, knowing they are not enough, and he piles them up anyway. Because the promises of a faithful, covenant-keeping God deserve every stammering attempt to describe them.
And notice — not a single formula in the list. No activation code. No technique. Just a mine to be searched, an armory to be entered, a surgery to be visited, a storehouse to be eaten from, a Magna Carta to be read, title deeds to be claimed, jewel rooms to be explored. The promises are there. They are Yes. The believer's task is not to unlock them — it is to receive them. 🙏
"How unutterably rich are the promises of our faithful, covenant-keeping God!"
Charles Spurgeon · Gleanings Among the SheavesGod has scattered flowers from His own garden along the entire path — all the way from the gates of hell where you once stood, to the gates of heaven where you are now headed. Look around and see how His promises, invitations, and encouragements lie about you like lilies.
Be careful not to trample them underfoot.
✦ From the Gates of Hell to the Gates of Heaven
Bunyan — the man who wrote Pilgrim's Progress from a prison cell — sees the promises differently than Spurgeon. Not locked in a vault. Not stored in a treasury. Scattered along the path like flowers. From the gates of hell where you once stood, to the gates of heaven where you are now headed. The entire road is lined with them — promises, invitations, encouragements — lying about you like lilies. Not hidden. Not locked behind a formula. Lying in the open, waiting to be picked up.
And that warning — be careful not to trample them underfoot. The danger is not that the promises are unavailable. The danger is that we walk over them without seeing. That we are so busy looking for the formula, the activation code, the technique — that we miss the lilies at our feet. The promises are Yes. They are here. They are now. And they have been here all along — from the gates of hell to the gates of heaven, from the midnight hospital in Lubbock to a motorhome in Villeneuve-lès-Béziers.
Le has not trampled a single one. Thirty-five mornings before dawn, she has bent down, picked up the lily the Lord placed on her path, and pressed it into this journal. Every entry is a flower from His garden — Nahum 1:12, the 500 denari, the woman with the issue of blood, Bowen's *I will trust,* Macduff's needful grace. Lilies. All of them. Scattered by His hand along her road. 🙏
Because of this, how incredible the Scriptures are to your soul! You see so much power and life in every promise and invitation. They are so broad and welcoming that they say: "Christ will never reject me," and "My deepest sins shall be made as white as snow."
Through the Spirit and the Scriptures, God revealed Christ to you. Because of what the Bible says about Christ's death, His resurrection, and His ongoing prayers for you, you can now look sin, death, hell, and every enemy right in the eye with confidence and peace, instead of fear.
✦ Right in the Eye — With Confidence and Peace
Bunyan takes us to the end of the road — the place where all the promises converge. Christ will never reject me. That is the Yes. My deepest sins shall be made as white as snow. That is the 500 denari — the debt forgiven entirely, with nothing lost in the forgiving. And because of these promises — you can look every enemy in the eye with confidence and peace.
Not because you mastered a formula. Not because you activated a code. Because of what the Bible says about Christ's death, His resurrection, and His ongoing prayers for you. His intercession. Lewis said it — you are only joining your feeble little voice to the perpetual intercession of Christ, who died for those very men. Bunyan says it — you can face everything with confidence because He is praying for you right now.
Spurgeon said two weeks ago: fear to fear. Be afraid to be afraid. Bunyan says: you don't need to fear anymore. Not because the enemies are gone. But because the promises are Yes, the intercession is ongoing, and the flowers line the entire path from here to heaven. Confidence and peace instead of fear. That is the fruit of a Yes that means Yes. 🙏
Yes Means Yes
Not a formula. Not an activation code. Not a conditional maybe. All the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen. The Yes rests on His character, not our method. The double-minded formula creates confusion. Paul creates clarity.
Seven Treasures
A mine. An armory. A surgery. A storehouse. A Magna Carta. Title deeds. Jewel rooms. Spurgeon piles up seven images and still says the riches are untellable. The promises are bigger than any picture can hold. Unutterably rich.
Lilies Along the Path
God has scattered flowers from His own garden along the entire path — from the gates of hell to the gates of heaven. The promises lie about you like lilies. Be careful not to trample them underfoot. Every journal entry — a lily picked up and pressed.