The End Of the Rainbow 🌈

On my way to work the other night there was a bright, bold, beautiful rainbow...I was driving, so as I glanced I realized it was full..I could see both ends!  It felt as if I was driving right under it!  I was in awe, I had to pull over and as I attempted a photo I realized it was a double and both were full rainbows!  Completely awesome!!

Rainbows always remind me why God put the first "bow" in the sky.

📖  And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: (KJV)

15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.” (NIV) Genesis 9:14-16 

I don't know if it is actually possible to "drive" under a rainbow ...but that is what looked like to me...and when I was able to stop and looked back...

This is all I saw...a beautiful sky that looked as if the rainbow had melted and was running down the palette of the sky.

Another thing that is probably not scientifically possible; I thought I saw the end of the rainbow! When I glanced as I was driving it was as if the trees on the edge of a field were behind the rainbow... they were bathed in the bright blended colors....as if BEHIND the rainbow and the rainbow was touching the ground beneath the trees....I did not get a picture and it may not have been so...but it sure looked like that to me and that is how I remember it in my minds eye.

The fairy tales and legends about "the end of the rainbow" where leprechauns dance and guard pots of gold...I didn't see any of that😉.

With the whole rainbow I continued to think about God's promises...

what is at the end of the rainbow?...God's promises!

First and foremost with the FIRST rainbow it was a specific promise;

📖  I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.” And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Genesis 9:11-13

But for believers...or at least me,  each rainbow I see is a reminder of God's promises. 

But what are His promises?

To make you rich? To keep all your lived ones safe from danger and harm? To keep you from ever suffering pain, rejection, sorrow?

This has been something rolling around in my mind for a while now....what DOES He promise?

When I typed in "promise" into biblegateway NIV, 225 results came up!

As I started to do some research there are some who have actually done the math..

"Herbert Lockyer, in his volume All the Promises of the Bible,' tells the story of Everett R. Storms, a school teacher in Canada, who made a detailed study of promises. According to Time,' Storms, of Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, reckoned the figure of 30,000 to be too high (since it is roughly the number of verses making up the Bible31,]73). During his twenty-seventh reading of the Bible, a task which took him a year and a half, Storms came up with a grand total of 8,810 promises (7,487 of them being promises made by God to humankind). While we probably cannot determine the exact number of promises contained in Scripture, we can agree with what King Solomon said during his temple dedication prayer concerning the validity of the promises of God: "Praise be to the Lord .... Not one word has failed of all the good promises he gave through his servant Moses" (1 Kgs 8:56 NIV)"

Knowles,Victor (1998) "Promise and Fulfillment:Believing the Promises of God," Leaven:Vol.6:Iss. 3 ,

Article 4.Available at: https://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/leaven/vol6/iss3/4

SO  if this is close to accurate I could blog a promise a week for 153 years! or how about a promise a day for almost 30 years!  that is a lot of promises...almost overwhelming!

I am going to try and share, what seem to me, some of the basics and the promises that I cling to:

The promise that He is who He says He is.

from the beginning

📖 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1

📖 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. John 1:1-3

📖 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.” Revelation 1:8

That He would make a way for His creation to move out from under the burden of sin

📖 "And I will put enmity
    between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
    and you will strike his heel.” Genesis 3:15

The fulfillment of that promise came in the form of Jesus Christ.

 📖 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

📖 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us—by me and Silas and Timothy—was not “Yes” and “No,” but in him it has always been “Yes.”  For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God. Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us,  set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. 2 Corinthians 1:19-22

Jesus made promises as well:

📖 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.  If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.  If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love." John 15:5-8

He promised the Holy Spirit

📖 When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me. John 15:26

📖 He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit. Galatians 3:14

The first commandment with a promise:

 📖 “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise— “so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.” Ephesians 6:2

That is just the tip of the iceberg!  I encourage you to search God's Word for yourself and find the many more promises that are in there!

🙏I pray that you find God's promises at the end of each rainbow....and that as you stand in His promises you are bathed in the bright, blended colors of God's light and love!❤

📖 He is the Lord our God; his judgments are in all the earth. He remembers his covenant forever, the promise he made, for a thousand generations, the covenant he made with Abraham, the oath he swore to Isaac. 1 Chronicles 16:14-16  

📖 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations. The Lord is trustworthy in all he promises and faithful in all he does.  Psalm 145:13

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