The Bible contains a lot of God's promises but not all the promises may be speaking to our present circumstances! God's promises can be for a particular person, group of people, everyone in general, and for a specific time...
We are going to be looking at some of the ways to discover God's promises that are for us.
The first way I will like us to look at is the context of a biblical passage. That's understanding the particular person or particular group of people and the time frame of the promise in the Bible.
And the Lord said to Joshua: “See! I have given Jericho into your hand, its king, and the mighty men of valour. You shall march around the city, all you men of war; you shall go all around the city once. This you shall do for six days. And seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark. But on the seventh day, you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. Joshua 6:1-4
This promise of God to give Jericho to the people of Israel was for a particular group of people and has been fulfilled long ago in the bible. Although there might be general principles that apply in this situation, the promise itself is for certain people, times, and places.
Another example I will like to discuss is during Jesus' ascension to heaven, He told His disciples to stay in Jerusalem and wait for the Holy Spirit He promised to send: "And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” (Acts 1:4-5).
This promise was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost "And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. Acts 2:2-4
The promise made to the church of Christ in Jerusalem has already been fulfilled not only to the church in Jerusalem but also to the Church of Christ around the world, we have received the gift of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues. This promise gave birth to the church of Christ of which all Christians around the world are part!
That doesn't mean that God may not give us similar instructions in our days but it is a promise that has been fulfilled. However, this promise can relate very well with believers who are yet to receive the Baptist of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues.
Another way to understand God's promises and how they work is by looking for conditional statements. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1John1:9 The word "if" is very important. That means we must confess our sins to be forgiven. That's knowing what is expected from us to do for the promise to be fulfilled!
There is also the general application of God's promises in the Bible to some situations in our lives "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7
This was promised to the Christians who lived in Philippi in the first century but is also applicable to Christians today. God's peace will guard our hearts and minds today just as it has with Christians since the early church.
Let us take a look at another example "These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. 1 John 5:13
Whoever believes in the Son of God, Jesus should have the assurance of eternal life.
God offers many promises of hope to us in Scripture. However, we must study each promise in context carefully to determine how it applies to us today. Some promises were meant for a specific person or group, while others apply more generally to all Christians.
Some promises apply today, while others were fulfilled in the past or may be regarded as future promises. We also have promises that are with conditional statements which require us to play our part, for them to be fulfilled. Overall, we can be confident that God always fulfils His promises flawlessly.