Jim George. What God Wants to Do For You.. Harvest House Publishers. 2004.

God keeps His promises to us. It wouldn’t be in God’s nature to lie to us. We need, as Christians, to learn the promises God gives in the Bible. Some promises are limited to particular groups of people or time periods. Others are for all believers throughout the centuries. Some promises are unconditional – no strings attached. Other promises require that we do something in order to obtain that promise.

Jim George selected twenty-four promises of God and dedicates a chapter to each of these promises. He provides help on discovering and understanding the promise. Then he guides us into putting the promise into effect in our lives. I enjoyed his personal examples from either himself or his family or friends.

Twenty Four Promises

The 24 promises discussed include: answered prayer, change, comfort, completion, courage, deliverance, forgiveness, grace, guidance, hope, life, love, peace, power, presence, provision, purpose, rest, self-discipline, strength, success, victory, wisdom, and worth. A final chapter shows us how God’s promises impact our personal character.

Example of God’s Promise: Answered Prayer

George begins this chapter by sharing information on his house and how they communicate with each other because of the multiple levels. Since they use walkie-talkies when necessary, their grandchildren wanted to use them too. Unfortunately, they were too young to understand HOW they worked and wound up telling their grandparents that the walkie-talkies were broken.

Many of us have forgotten how to communicate with God. As a result, we come to believe that God isn’t answering our prayers. George shows us God’s requirements for answered prayers: Faith, no selfish motives, and in the Will of God. Then he spends time teaching us what “prayer” really is – communication with God. He noted two major problems: We have difficulty asking God for help or directions! We don’t pray enough.

Then he follows by discussing reasons we fail to pray. Those reasons include simple worldliness, busyness, faithlessness, distance, ignorance, sinfulness, pridefulness, inexperience, and my favorite, basic laziness.

We have to put God’s promise to work. How do we do that with Prayer? Get rid of our excuses and just start praying! He suggests the following steps to putting God’s promise of answered prayer to work in our lives: 1) Keep a prayer journal or notebook so we can see when God actually does answer prayer. 1) Memorize His promises about praying. 3) Talk to God. 4) Set an initial goal that is reachable – maybe just five minutes a day. Philippians 4:6 says we are to let our requests be known to God. If we don’t pray, we aren’t letting our requests be known!

Recommendation

What God Wants to Do For You would be excellent for a Bible study group or Sunday school class. It would even make an excellent series of sermons for believers and non-believers alike. I can just see a congregation growing and getting involved with God’s plans as they come to put these promises into practice.

Copyrighted by Diana Pederson, 2005-2009