Promises
Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary [1]
We have a most extensive sense to the word promise, since every thing in the Bible, yea, the Bible itself, is the word of promise. The word includes every thing that hath respect to the life that now is, and of that which is to come. All the persons of the Godhead form the subject and substance of the promise. God the Father is the promise, and the matter of every promise. The great and comprehensive promise is, "I will be their God, and they shall be my people"—in which the Lord gives himself, and a property in himself, and all his divine perfections. Christ is also, in his person, fulness, suitableness, and all-sufficiency, the promise of the Scriptures; and God the Holy Ghost, in his sevenfold gifts and graces, the promise to the church and people; and every thing of blessings, temporal, spiritual, and eternal, in and with the Holy Three in One, form the promise of JEHOVAH. To particularize would be endless. The highest concern is, to enquire our interest in the whole, and whether we are the children of promise. If we are Christ's, saith the Holy Ghost, by the apostle, "then are we Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." ( Galatians 3:29)
Charles Spurgeon's Illustration Collection [2]
Good old Spurstow says that some of the promises are like the almond tree: they blossom hastily in the very earliest spring; but, saith he, there are others which resemble the mulberry tree: they are very slow in putting forth their leaves. Then what is a man to do, if he has a mulberry tree promise which is late in blossoming? Why, he is to wait till it does. If the vision tarry, wait for it till it come, and the appointed time shall surely bring it.
