Promises Made and Kept

 

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. And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. (1 Corinthians 1:20-22 ESV).

 

Perhaps you are one of those folks who have never broken a promise. It may be you have much more restraint than I do and simply don’t make promises that you can’t keep. Unfortunately, I’m not nearly that disciplined. When our oldest son was very young, we bought him a peddle-driven firetruck, much like the one I’ve pictured here. One afternoon after I arrived home I was greeted by a downcast little boy whose world had obviously come perilously close to ending. Getting the story, it seemed that he had left his firetruck in the garage and Mary didn’t see it until she ran over it with our suburban. Needless to say it was in great need of repair. I assured my son that I could repair it and promised to get to it quickly. A week turned to a month, a month to a year, and finally I did repair it, though five years had passed since it was damaged. He was no longer small enough to use it, neither was his next youngest brother, though our youngest son was (I suppose there’s some good in that).

 

Was my promise sincere… of course it was. Was I trustworthy… my actions certainly didn’t support such a claim. I had lots of excuses. After all, I was very busy, delays just seemed to crowd the repair further and further away. Yet, it was an unfulfilled promise. We still laugh about that firetruck, but it is a memory that serves as a reminder how important promises are to keep.

 

God needs no reminders. He has never failed to keep His promises. The apostle Paul says that every question is answered with a definite “Yes.” With God, there’s not a single “hopefully,” “maybe,” “probably,” or “I don’t know.” And the result always matches his promise. We celebrate Lent because God makes reliable promises and keeps them. He promised to send the Messiah for our salvation, and he delivered. If God kept his greatest promise to us at the cost of his Son, will he not keep every other promise he has made? Lent is a good time to renew our hope in the promises of God.