What's in a Promise, part 4 - Denise Pass
Inspirational Thought of the Day:
Broken promises are a doorway that leads us to higher promises made by the Lover of our souls.
Scriptures of the Day:
2 Corinthians 1:20
“For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.”
Matthew 5:37
“Let your word be ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no.’ More than this is from the evil one.”
We have looked at the Source of Promises, the Purpose of Promises, and the Nature of Promises. I confess I want to get right to my last part to this series – Accessing God’s Promises (can’t wait!) – but I feel I would be remiss if I skipped over what I alluded to yesterday – Broken Promises.
I don’t really like to talk about broken promises. It hurts to contemplate both when someone betrayed our trust or when we did so, as well. I hate to see other people’s lives crushed because of one person’s decision to be unfaithful and to choose temporary pleasure instead of eternal reward. We long for the day when people’s yes is yes and their no is no. We root for people to be faithful. With man this is not possible, but with God nothing is impossible.
Christ knows our pain. He knew Judas was going to betray him, but he did not stop him from doing so. A promise He had spoken prior to this betrayal was on His mind – the redemption of our souls.
Sometimes we can sense that someone is going to break their promise with us and we try to stop them. We try to warn them of the consequences, but they still opt for the route of pain. Why?
Deceived.
The same one who deceived Judas gets into the hearts of men and women and blinds their eyes so they do not believe God’s promises. Man can tend to look at the here and now and shrink back from faith when things seem too difficult to trust in a promise that seems impossible. Seemingly yielding to what seems more pleasant, promise breakers are actually choosing a life of pain for themselves and those they have broken faith with.
The trouble with man placing his trust in our own actions is that we don’t often think it all the way through. When we do, we rationalize our way around the deception and think we will escape the principle of God at work in all of our lives – reaping what we sow. Deceived again. Notice that I say the word, “we” because apart from the grace of God, so we all are capable of being deceived and falling.
Who broke the promise? Can I trust God?
But what we might not want to readily admit is that we sometimes feel as if trust is broken between us and God when God allows pain into our lives. We stuff the thoughts down, not wanting our faith hurt. Somewhere we believed the lie that God promised us perfect lives free of discomfort. As favored children of God, we think we might have a better plan than God does for our lives.
Acknowledging our tendency to blame God for man’s sin, we still have a crisis – will God’s promises redeem the mess we are in? From the framework of the promises we make, this does not seem likely, until we examine God’s track record. Yes, friends, God’s promises are always fulfilled – but we have a role to play, too.
When we by faith take God at his word, we can still struggle with the temptation to break promises ourselves or avoid doing our part of the promises of God. Why doesn’t everyone do everything they can to gain the promises of God?
Vulnerability.
Trusting in promises is a vulnerable choice. We don’t want to feel foolish when our hopes seem to go unanswered. It might seem like a place of weakness to trust in what seems impossible, but it is, in fact, a place of strength. Our Almighty God is really the only One Who is fully trustworthy and able to make us trustworthy, too. Despite the suffering that broken promises produce, broken promises are a doorway that leads us to a higher promise made by the Lover of our souls.
Lord, heal hearts that have broken and help us to place all our trust in You, where we will never be disappointed.
Denise Pass | Author | Singer | Speaker | Worship Leader
