All of us have made promises one time or another. Some promises are kept.
However, in a complicated world, some promises are sometimes reconfigured or abandoned because its original motives may fade or context and circumstance may change. Thus, one time or another, we had been hurt by broken promises.
Most likely, you heard some of these promises that had been broken. “I promise I won’t tell anyone.” “I promise to love, honor, and cherish forever and forever.” “I promise to be faithful.” “I promise to pay you the money that I borrowed.” “I promise to never do it again.” “I promise to not forget.” “I promise never to be absent again.” “I promise to be there on time.”
Promises! In spite of the hurts and pain it caused, promise in principle is the supreme expression of love. A love that promises is a love that seeks to endure beyond the ebbs and flows of history, transcending the effects of time. Promissory love is love that reaches for Eternity. And it requires faith to believe in a promise. Thus, we Christians are people of promise.
Before Abraham and Sarah began a pilgrimage to Haran, God promised (Genesis 12:1-4a) Abraham that God would make him a father of a great nation. However, one can’t be made into a great nation without descendants, and one can’t have descendants without having children. Since Abraham was already 75 years old and Sarah was 65, it seemed that the promise was impossible to fulfill.
Abraham protests and argues about the delayed fulfillment of the promise (vv. 3, 4). But God re-asserts his promise, shows Abraham the stars, but really offers him nothing more, nothing new, nothing except God’s Word. And Abraham believed. Abraham decided that God’s Word is good and he can count on God’s promise. And Abraham believed.
These days we are reminded of God‘s promises to us. When God promised us, “Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give your rest,” we need to believe.
When God said, “In my father’s house are many rooms, if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?” we need to believe.
If God said, “Because I live you too will live,” we need to believe.
If God said “my peace I leave with you,” in spite of the conflict in Mindanao, the threat of abductions and terrorism, we still believe and work for justice and peace.
If God said, “Though your sins be as scarlet, I can forgive you if you repent of your sins,” we believe. Thus, we come to the Lord’s Table believing in the promises of the forgiveness of our sins.
Helmut Thielicke said, “Taking God seriously means taking him at his Word and giving him the chance to act the way he has said he will act.”
The problem with a promise is the waiting. We don’t like to wait. Thus, when we deal with the promises of God we are equally impatient, and are prone to conclude if the answer is not given now, it never will be. We are like little children when we have to wait. If we are not given what we want right away, we throw a tantrum.
A family was taking a trip by car, some distance away. Knowing the impatience of their young son, the parents cautioned him as they got into the car, “Now we will get there as soon as we can. But don’t keep asking when we are going to get there–understand?” After traveling several minutes, from the back seat of the car the boy ventured this question, “Will I still be alive when we get there?”
We run by clocks and calendars, by schedules and timetables, so we assume God does, too. And we want God to tell us when, what time, what day, what year–forgetting that God is not limited to our puny plans and schedules.
Of course, we argue and say, “But God, if you don’t do it now, or by Tuesday, or next year, it will be too late.” Remember, a promise is a gift, a grace from God, and gifts cannot be forced nor hurried.
One little boy was so fond of this teacher that he could not resist inviting her to his home for breakfast on his birthday. Such a request would be dismissed by most teachers as nothing more than a child’s youthful naiveté. But this teacher promised the little boy that she would come and be with him on his birthday.
On his birthday, the boy’s parents tried to convince him that his teacher would not be coming. Can you imagine the surprise of that boy’s family when the teacher showed up at their door for breakfast? That little boy experienced sheer joy the day his teacher came to celebrate with him. That day also taught him a great deal about being faithful to one’s promises and the joy that can result from such faithfulness.
Many years later, that same teacher was diagnosed with a terminal illness. She was bedridden and in pain. She had little time left and she had become fearful about what lay ahead for her. Her pastor tried to alleviate her fears and anxieties. He talked to her about God’s promise of eternal life and the joy and serenity that would be a part of that experience for her. Yet,she seemed unconvinced.
Then, the woman’s brother reminded her of that time when she had gone to be with her student for his birthday. He reminded her of the joy that little boy experienced as a result of her extraordinary faithfulness to a promise. “Can’t you have the same trust in God’s faithfulness to God’s promises?” he asked.
The dying woman melted in sobs and tears as her pastor prayed for her. She did indeed know of the joy and serenity that would soon be hers. She trusted in it with great confidence and her fears dissipated.
We, too, can become practitioners of faith in all of our hopelessly, impossible situations. God can be trusted and we can trust God. We may not get the answers that we think we need nor get the answer right away. But God can be trusted. That is why we can confidently sing the lines of the familiar song, “Standing on the promises that cannot fail, when the howling storms of doubt and fear assail, by the living Word of God, I shall prevail; standing on the promises of God!”
