Promises
"O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth below -- you who keep your covenant of love with your servants who continue wholeheartedly in your way. You have kept your promise to your servant David my father; with your mouth you have promised and with your hand you have fulfilled it -- as it is today." I Kings 8:23-24
I hesitated as I reached for the phone thinking that I had too much happening for phone calls. The kind voice on the other line said, "Sorry to bother you, but I was just calling to see what your plan was in regards to picking up your daughter from school today." "O no!! ... I'll be right there.", I said. I arrived to a little red-eyed, tear-stained face looking at me with the most profound sense of disappointment and hurt that I have ever seen. "Daddy", she said, "You told me that you would be here to pick me up." Ouch. No one needs to tell us that promises are a big deal. We've made promises to others, kept them and broken them. Others have made promises to us, kept them, and broken them. Pain and regret are just two of the close acquaintances of broken promises that we wish we would have never had to face.
With the enormity of the significance promises play in life in mind, Solomon, in our verses for the day, proclaims something about God that we should always treasure. Namely, he keeps his promises. By his mouth he promises and with his hand he fulfills. Consider that for just a moment, every promise God has made, he has kept ... 100% of the time. No excuses, rationalizations, exceptions, caveats, extenuating circumstances, or escape clauses needed. I promise ... period. Sometimes, we'll accuse God of breaking promises, but after careful review we'll find one of two things to be true. First, we're attributing to him a promise that he did not make or we've twisted a promise he did make so severely that it's nothing like the original promise. At other times, we'll just get mad because he didn't make a certain promise that we wanted him to make. So, now what?
Assuming you desire to be a promise keeper yourself, two points of action immediately jump to mind. First, get as close as you possibly can to the Ultimate Promise Keeper. He's not like us. We need his help to become more like him, a person who's promises are good. Second, do not make any promises that you are not fully prepared to do whatever it takes to see them through. O, and for those who come up short in their promises to you, forgiveness and a short memory will go a long way.
Grace and Peace,
Tom
I hesitated as I reached for the phone thinking that I had too much happening for phone calls. The kind voice on the other line said, "Sorry to bother you, but I was just calling to see what your plan was in regards to picking up your daughter from school today." "O no!! ... I'll be right there.", I said. I arrived to a little red-eyed, tear-stained face looking at me with the most profound sense of disappointment and hurt that I have ever seen. "Daddy", she said, "You told me that you would be here to pick me up." Ouch. No one needs to tell us that promises are a big deal. We've made promises to others, kept them and broken them. Others have made promises to us, kept them, and broken them. Pain and regret are just two of the close acquaintances of broken promises that we wish we would have never had to face.
With the enormity of the significance promises play in life in mind, Solomon, in our verses for the day, proclaims something about God that we should always treasure. Namely, he keeps his promises. By his mouth he promises and with his hand he fulfills. Consider that for just a moment, every promise God has made, he has kept ... 100% of the time. No excuses, rationalizations, exceptions, caveats, extenuating circumstances, or escape clauses needed. I promise ... period. Sometimes, we'll accuse God of breaking promises, but after careful review we'll find one of two things to be true. First, we're attributing to him a promise that he did not make or we've twisted a promise he did make so severely that it's nothing like the original promise. At other times, we'll just get mad because he didn't make a certain promise that we wanted him to make. So, now what?
Assuming you desire to be a promise keeper yourself, two points of action immediately jump to mind. First, get as close as you possibly can to the Ultimate Promise Keeper. He's not like us. We need his help to become more like him, a person who's promises are good. Second, do not make any promises that you are not fully prepared to do whatever it takes to see them through. O, and for those who come up short in their promises to you, forgiveness and a short memory will go a long way.
Grace and Peace,
Tom
Comments
Post a Comment