God Of Promise

God of Promise

Not a single one of all the good promises the LORD had given to the family of Israel was left unfulfilled; everything he had spoken came true. Joshua 21:45

EARLY IN SCRIPTURE, God established himself as a faithful keeper of promises. He followed through on his warning about eating from the wrong tree. He kept his promise to a faithful family in the midst of an earthshaking flood. He honored his covenant with once-childless Abraham and filled the world with his descendants. And he delivered his people from captivity, just as he said he would. There’s a reason they were able to enter the Promised Land. It had been promised.

It wasn’t always easy, and the fulfillment didn’t always look as expected. Abraham waited long years for his miracle and then was painfully tested in it years later. The captives in Egypt spent four centuries there and in at least the last few decades, if not longer, were brutally enslaved. They didn’t anticipate an army in hot pursuit after their deliverance or a long journey through the wilderness, either, and they complained about both. They were intimidated by the opposition in the land of inheritance and had to fight intense battles in order to finally receive it. But throughout all the journeys, trials, and battles, God never failed to keep his word. He did what he said he was going to do. He held up his end of the deal.

We’ll find the same dynamic at work in our lives too. We pray in faith to receive what he has promised, and sometimes we’re surprised when the answer doesn’t come magically and instantly. We may complain about the battles and trials we have to go through, and there will be times when the promise takes so long to be fulfilled that our faith nearly breaks. Still, God is faithful. His promises may include conditions, but he will keep his end of the deal when we meet those conditions—and sometimes even when we don’t. He makes promises because he wants to fulfill them. They are his will for us. Don’t let go, even when the wait is long and the trials are intense. Everything he speaks comes true.

God is the God of promise. He keeps his word, even when that seems impossible; even when the circumstances seem to point to the opposite.