Over the last couple of years, when organizing Next Step trips, I’ve used Habakkuk 2:14 as a verse that undergirds some of the things we do out in California, “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea”. It stands as a promise that what we are laboring for will ultimately prevail. Our particular role is a tiny portion of the global cause. But the Lord promises that relief will ultimately be accomplished…by Him. One day He will render all things just.

We are all invited and privileged to participate in the global cause of Christ. Even though it is His cause and it WILL succeed, we at times become weary and discouraged. Here are a dozen of my favorite promises from scripture, to remind us that what He has started, He will complete. I often turn to these and others on those tough days that inevitably come. My challenge is to read these verses, study them, meditate on the weight of what they mean. Be encouraged that our labor is not in vain. We serve a risen and ascended Christ who has said… “I will build my Church and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.” That is precisely what He is doing.

• I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice. (Genesis 22:17-18; ESV)

• I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.” (Psalm 2:7-8)

• Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you. I will say to the north, ‘Give up’, and to the south, ‘Do not withhold’; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made. (Isaiah 43:5-7)

• I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. (Ezekiel 36:24-27)

• I will whistle for them and gather them in, for I have redeemed them, and they shall be as many as they were before. Though I scattered them among the nations, yet in far countries they shall remember me, and with their children they shall live and return. I will bring them home from the land of Egypt, and gather them from Assyria, and I will bring them to the land of Gilead and to Lebanon, till there is no room for them. (Zechariah 10:8-10)

• And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”(Revelation 5:9-10)