I am not permitted to stray beyond the bounds of the garden but from time to time I stand at the gate taking in the deserted street and listening to the birdsong. The other week I noticed a rusty key lying on the pavement nearby. It was still there this morning. I don’t think it is any great loss to anyone. It looks like it may have unlocked a case or an untrustworthy padlock.
It made me think of that episode in John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress when Christian and his companion Hopeful are taken captive by Giant Despair and locked in a dungeon in his Doubting Castle. They endure quite a time of inner darkness with Giant Despair pressurising them to deny their faith and even to do away with themselves. Then after a time of prayer Christian remembers that he possesses a key called ‘Promise’ that will open any lock in Doubting Castle. Encouraged to use it by Hopeful the dungeon door and all the other doors in Doubting Castle fly open.
It’s allegory of course, a way of describing the darkness that sometimes falls on a Christian’s inner life to the extent that they might even begin to doubt God and His ways. It might seem a bit weak that Christian possessed the answer to his problem all through his experience. All he had to do was remember? But that is the point. Bunyan was well aware that the way out of all our inner darkness, the key to once again enjoying the light is to remember the promises of God. Too often they seem to have departed from our consciousness and yet they are the key to growing in faith.
‘God is our refuge and our strength, an ever present help in time of trouble.’ (Psalm 46: 1)
That is a promise.
‘I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’ (Matthew 28: 20)
That is a promise.
‘We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him.’ (Romans 8: 28)
That is a promise.
‘If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.’ (1 John 1: 9)
That is a promise.
‘I am the resurrection and the life. If anyone has faith in me even though they die they will come to life. And no one who is alive and has faith in me will ever die.’ (John 11: 25-26.)
That is a promise.
Whenever you find them in Scripture, these promises, memorise them, plant them in your inner being so that they will bloom in your time of need.
Alexander Whyte was a prominent figure in the Free Church of Scotland in the late 19th century and early 20th century. When he would visit the sick and dying he would read the promises in Scripture with regard to God’s help in the present and the hope of the life to come. He would often finish with saying: ‘Now put that under your tongue and suck it like a sweetie.’
We need to do this with the promises. Let them dissolve into our inner being until they become part of our spiritual DNA. Ready whenever we fall into the clutches of Giant Despair and know the darkness of his dungeon to be our strength and peace.
