Imagine a child who repeatedly fails to clean her room. You try not to lose your temper, and you sit down to calmly discuss the matter with her. After listening to a variety of excuses, you tell her that she has until tomorrow afternoon to complete the task. She leaves saying, “Okay, I will, I promise.” Then tomorrow afternoon arrives and the room is in worse condition that before your conversation.
Imagine your father promising that he will take you fishing this Saturday. You can hardly wait. You spend all your time making mental and physical preparations. Your anticipation keeps you from concentrating on your school work. You get all your poles and hooks gathered up. You spend time on Friday digging worms. You get up early Saturday morning to pack a lunch. You hardly even notice when the telephone rings, until your dad comes and tells you that his boss has just called him into work.
Imagine a politician who promises things will be different if he is elected, but everything remains the same.
Those situations are not too difficult to imagine. We all know what it means to have someone make a promise only to break it. That is the way people are. All kinds of promises are broken everyday. It may be the promise the guy made when he sold you that car that it “was in great shape” or the promise she made when she said she would be faithful “till death do us part.” Breaking promises is what people do. I am not condoning or approving of this behavior, but simply stating the reality. People make promises in order to get us to do something, and more often than not they break them. That is a reflection of our fallen sinful nature. You may have the best of intentions when you make a promise, but you are not always able to carry it out.
Wouldn’t it be nice if you had a promise you could count on, absolutely, positively? There is.
Genesis 12:1-3 The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. [2] “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. [3] I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
It may be stating the obvious, but the “I” that is speaking here, the one making all the promises and doing it all is God. In fact, it may be so obvious that we overlook it. How often have you read this account and thought, “It must have been a great hardship on Abraham to move his household not even knowing where he was going!” When you read through this, do you place the emphasis on the inconvenience imposed on Abraham or that God went out of His way to accomplish something for all men through Abraham and his descendants?
This passage is pure grace, God is giving and man is receiving. Mankind, and Abraham in particular, had done nothing to merit or deserve what God was doing, but God wants to give it so God gives it. All Abraham had to do was take what God was giving. And he did.
By believing God’s promise, Abraham was counted as righteous. The promise was good not because of anything Abraham did, but because of the one making the promise: God!
The same is true for us today. When you and I believe the promises that were made and fulfilled in Jesus, we get what He earned for us through His life and death and resurrection: forgiveness for all our sin, life and salvation.
When He makes a promise, you will not be disappointed.
