Obtaining Promises.
God sometimes gives His people fresh promises "by faith," just before a trial is about to come upon them. It was so with Elijah. God said to him, "Go to the brook Cherith; behold, I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there." This was at the beginning of the famine. There he abode, and God fulfilled the promise, for by faith Elijah had obtained it. Acting upon faith, still dependent upon God, he abides at Cherith, and as the result of this faith, God gives him a fresh promise, "Arise, get thee to Zarephath—I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee." The faith which received the first promise, obtained the honor of a second. So with us. If we have had a little promise, and up till now have realized it; if we have lived upon it and made it the stay and support of our souls, surely God will give us another and a greater one. And so, from promise to promise speeding our way, we shall find the promises to be rounds of the ladder which Jacob saw, the top whereof shall reach to heaven. Doubt and be distrustful about the promise which you have, and you cannot expect God to increase His revelation to your soul. Be afraid and unbelieving about that promise which was laid to your heart yesterday, and you shall not have a new one to-morrow. But act in simple faith upon what God has already given you, and you shall go from strength to strength, receiving grace upon grace, and promise upon promise. The Spirit of God shall whisper into your soul some promise which shall come home with as much power as though an angel from heaven had spoken it to you, and you shall "through faith" obtain promises which before were beyond your reach.