The Promise Keeper

He keeps every promise forever.

Psalm 146:6

I place no value on anything I have or may possess, except in relation to the kingdom of Christ,” said David Livingstone, explorer and medical missionary to Africa during the 1800s. Livingstone rose from a job as a humble spinner in a cotton mill, where he had worked from ages ten through twenty-six, to attending a university in Glasgow, Scotland, solely on money he had labored for and saved.

Following medical and missionary training in London, he sailed for Africa in 1840. Throughout his many years there, going where no white man ever had gone, Livingstone faced constant dangers and was robbed multiple times. He often lacked food and suffered from severe illness and the loss of loved ones, including his wife.

Yet he was able to continue his mission because he believed and staked his life upon Jesus’ words: “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations. . . . And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20, emphasis added).

On a night of gravest peril, when a hostile chief and his people were coming to kill him, Livingstone wrote, “It’s the word of a Gentleman of the most sacred and strictest honour, so there’s an end on it!” In this as in all the pivotal moments of his life, he claimed the promise of Christ’s presence and moved forward until his last breath in the mission God had appointed for him.

We may not be called to the darkest, most dangerous parts of a continent across the ocean as Livingstone was, but we can trust in God’s promise of his constant presence protecting us and his Spirit living within us, for he is the one who keeps his promises forever.

Father, I thank you that your promises are eternally rock solid and that your very nature and character stand behind them. Grant me deeper faith, to not merely believe your word but to act on it. In Christ’s name, amen.

If anything will advance the interests of the kingdom, it shall be given away or kept, only as by giving or keeping it I shall promote the glory of Him to whom I owe all my hopes in time and eternity.

David Livingstone(1813–1873), Scottish explorer and missionary