If you have ever read a beautiful promise in the Old Testament and wondered, can I really claim that, you are asking the right question. It shows you take God's word seriously enough not to twist it.
The good news is that you do not have to guess. The Bible gives you what you need to sort the promises God made to us from the ones He made to someone else. And once you sort them, you find that the ones spoken to believers are more than enough to live on.
This page gives you four simple tests, works through real examples on both sides, and then lays out the promises of God to us that are clearest in Scripture.
Four tests for any promise
Ask these in order. Most promises sort themselves out by the second or third question.
1. Who is being spoken to?
Read the verses before and after. Is God talking to Abraham, to Israel, to a prophet, to the twelve disciples, or to a church full of believers? The audience is the first fact about any promise.
2. Which covenant is it part of?
Many promises in Exodus through Deuteronomy belong to the covenant God made with Israel at Sinai, with its land and its laws. Hebrews says believers now live under a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. That changes how some older promises reach us.
3. Does the New Testament hand it on?
When an apostle quotes an Old Testament promise and gives it to believers, you can hold it with confidence. This is the clearest test of all, and we will look at an example below.
4. Is there a condition?
Some promises are open to whoever meets a simple condition: believe, confess, ask, come. If the condition is something you can do, the promise is offered to you.
Spoken to someone else, or spoken to you?
Here are real examples on both sides. Notice that even the ones in the first column still teach you something true about God.
| The promise | Spoken to | How it reaches you |
|---|---|---|
| A son named Isaac (Genesis 17:19) | Abraham | Not yours to claim. It shows God can do what looks impossible. |
| Blessings in the land for keeping the law (Deuteronomy 28) | Israel under the Sinai covenant | Not a direct promise to you. It shows God rewards obedience. |
| Healing of the land (2 Chronicles 7:14) | Solomon, about Israel, after the temple was dedicated | Many read it as a pattern for humble prayer. It does not name any modern country. |
| A return after seventy years (Jeremiah 29:10 to 11) | The captives in Babylon | The details are theirs. God's thoughts of peace toward His people are true for you. |
| I will never leave thee (Hebrews 13:5) | Believers, echoing Joshua 1:5 and Deuteronomy 31:6 | Yours. |
| Forgiveness when we confess (1 John 1:9) | Believers | Yours, with a condition: confess. |
| The promise of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:39) | You, your children, and all that are afar off | Yours, as one the Lord calls. |
A worked example: from Joshua to you
This is the clearest way to see test three at work.
After Moses died, God spoke to Joshua, the man who now had to lead a nation into a land full of armies. The promise was for him, by name:
There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.
Joshua 1:5 (KJV)
Many centuries later, the writer of Hebrews was warning ordinary believers not to love money. He told them to be content, and he gave them a reason. He reached back to words very close to the promise God gave Joshua and handed them on:
Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
Hebrews 13:5 (KJV)
That is the New Testament telling you how to read your Old Testament. A promise first spoken to a general on the edge of the Jordan is now spoken to a believer paying bills. It is the same God, keeping the same word, to more people.
A careful example: Jeremiah 29:11
You see this verse on cards, mugs and kitchen walls. It is worth reading where it lives.
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
Jeremiah 29:11 (KJV)
Jeremiah sent these words in a letter to the people of Judah who had been carried off to Babylon. The verse just before it says God would bring them home after seventy years. So the expected end, in its first meaning, was a return to Jerusalem for those exiles and their children.
Does that mean the verse has nothing for you? No. It tells you what God is like toward His people even in their worst season: His thoughts are of peace, not evil. The New Testament says the same about believers in many places. Hold on to that. Just do not use the verse to promise yourself a certain job, school or outcome God never named.
What God has promised believers
These promises are spoken in the New Testament to believers in general. You can read them with your own name in mind.
A love nothing can break
For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38-39 (KJV)
Paul runs through every power he can think of, in heaven and on earth, in life and in death, and rules each one out.
Prayer that is heard
And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
1 John 5:14-15 (KJV)
The condition is to ask according to His will. The promises themselves show you what that will is, which is one more reason to pray them.
A clean slate
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:9 (KJV)
John wrote this to believers. Confession is not a one-time event at the start. It is the open door you can walk back through any day.
He will finish what He started
Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:
Philippians 1:6 (KJV)
Paul was sure of this about the church at Philippi, and the reason he gives is God, not them. The same God is at work in you.
Rest for the tired
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Matthew 11:28 (KJV)
The condition is one word: come. Jesus did not set a level of strength or goodness you need first.
A Helper who stays
And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
John 14:16 (KJV)
Jesus said this to His disciples the night before the cross. In Acts, Peter says the promise of the Spirit reaches all whom the Lord calls.
The promise behind all the others
For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the LORD our God shall call.
Acts 2:39 (KJV)
Peter spoke these words on the day of Pentecost to a crowd that had just asked what they should do. The promise was not only for the people standing there. It was for their children and for those far away, as many as God would call. If you are reading this and want to belong to Him, the call reaches you too. The door is to turn to Christ and believe. Every other promise on this page grows from that one.
Making these promises your own
Pick one promise from this page. Write it on a card and put your name at the top. Read it out loud in the morning, then talk to God about it in plain words, something like: Lord, You said You would never leave me. I am counting on that today.
Do not worry if you do not feel anything at first. A promise is true whether your feelings have caught up or not. Over time, the words you say to God in the morning become the words you hear in your head when a hard moment comes.
For more, see what the promises of God are, read why God's promises are yes and amen in Christ, or browse the promises in the New Testament.
Coming next
The Every Promise of God books tell you plainly, on every page, who a promise was made to and whether there was a condition, so you know what you can stand on. Book Three, covering Job and Psalms 1 through 89, is coming next. Sign up and we will tell you when it is out.