Standing on the Promises

This morning at worship service we sang songs that encouraged me.  We sang "Redeemed, Restored, Forgiven", "Always", "Cornerstone" and "Standing on the Promises."  Sundays during Lent I want to take a closer look at some of the songs we sing during worship.  Today let's look at the story behind "Standing on the Promises."

Below is an excerpt from Thrive Magazine online about the story behind "Standing on the Promises" by Russell Kelso Carter.  Enjoy the story and stand on the firm promises of God today.

"... it wasn’t until Carter faced his own mortality that he came to understand exactly what it meant to rest on God’s promises. Diagnosed with a critical heart condition by age 30, Carter was facing imminent death.

Connie Ruth Christiansen writes: “He knelt and made a promise that healing or no, his life was finally and forever, consecrated to the service of the Lord.”  Christiansen goes on to say that from that moment on the Scripture took on new life for Carter and he began to lean on the promises that he found in the Bible. He committed himself to believe, whether or not God granted him healing.

God chose to heal him and Carter lived, with a healthy heart, for another 49 years, though he would later suffer many other health issues from which God did not choose to heal him. In the end, Carter came to the conclusion that healing was God’s choice to make and that God also chose the instruments through which that healing, if granted, would come. His hymn was a personal testimony to his faith."