THE ULTIMATE PROMISE

We have all had promises made to us. We have all sat around and waited excitedly for when our parents would finally fulfill that promise they gave to us previously. But many of us have also had a person make a promise to us and go on with life only to never see that promise come true, or worse, that person deliberately break that promise they made to us. In this moment we are disappointed, hurt, or even crushed depending on how much that promise meant to us, and also how much that person meant to us.

We are only just a week past a big celebration for those that call themselves Christians. This event was the resurrection of Jesus form the dead, a miracle that many could not even begin to understand or comprehend. Not even those that served faithfully beside Jesus and did life with him during his ministry here on earth. For many this resurrection came as a major surprise but for God it was only part of his plan, his promise to his people. This promise begins way back in the beginning of time, during the fall of man. In Genesis, chapter 3, verses 14 & 15, we see:

“The LORD God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.’”

When I was a kid and I was first told this story, I’ll be honest, my first thought was he was speaking to the snake itself (which it makes sense, we all hate to see a snake in our garden and when we do, our first inclination is to smash its head in), but in reality, he was actually speaking to the devil within the beast. This is the beginning of the first promise of God that brings about the long story of events that leads to Jesus. When Friday rolled around, and Jesus would suffer upon that cross, the Enemy would have bruised the heal of Jesus. But that was only the first part because soon Jesus would come back to land a blow the final constraining hold that sin had onto the head of Satan. And on that amazing Sunday, Jesus would rise from the dead to complete that promise that God made so long ago!

Another story that comes to mind is the story of Caleb, one of the men in the group of spies that were sent out to scout the land before the Israelites entered in. The only difference with Caleb was that he was the only one that believed that they could take the land form the people while the other spies believed that the people were too strong and too numerous for them to overtake.

“Caleb told the people to be quiet and listen to Moses. Caleb said, ‘Let’s go now and take possession of the land. We should be more than able to conquer it.’

But the men who had gone with him said, ‘We can’t attack those people! They’re too strong for us!’ So they began to spread lies among the Israelites about the land they had explored. They said, ‘The land we explored is one that devours those who live there. All the people we saw there are very tall.’”

Caleb was the only one that had faith that they could take the land and he was the only one that did not spread lies among the people to instill fear in everyone. Caleb would one day receive his reward for his faith in their ability and the God they serve, but it would not come until years later… 45 years to be exact! He faithfully waited for forty-five years to see a promise fulfilled!

The two points I would hope gets taken away from these two stories are these: 1) God always fulfills his promises he makes, it just sometimes takes some time. But in that time, your faith in him is being crafted and molded into something new. 2) From the beginning, God has always had a plan, and he will see it through in his timing, not ours! God knew before he even created the world that Adam and Eve would sin, that a savior was needed, and that Jesus would be that savior. If he has plan for this grand scheme, we can believe that he has a plan for each of us!

FOR THE ETERNAL

Believing that God always fulfills his promises and that he always has a plan in motion should be a major confidence booster for us. When it comes to living with an eternal mindset, knowing these things are important, but sometimes we can find ourselves getting so caught up in the world and forget them. We have to realign our thinking to see clearly that God loves us and that he cares for us enough to build a life for us that we don’t even know the whole story to yet. A god would not do that if he did not love us as his own child.

So, what to do? We need to realign our thinking on God and who he is. How? Take time to pray. There are three things that you could pray for (though there are many others, these are my three suggestions): 1) If you have seen a promise revealed and/or fulfilled by God, take time to thank him for it and all that has come from it. 2) Maybe you feel that God has made you a promise but is not fulfilling it. In this case, pray that God gives you patience. Patience? Yes! Ask for the patience that Caleb had to wait on the LORD for forty-five years! Now, was that easy for him to wait? Probably not, but there was a level of patience he had to have to wait on God to fulfill his promises to him. 3) Lastly, pray for perseverance. In the grand scheme of God’s ultimate plan, there will be adversity for those that are waiting on the eternal promise that comes from our work here on earth. Jesus even tells us that adversity will come in the world, but we need to understand that Jesus has already overcome the world!

And there they are. Like I said, I am sure there are many ways to pray to God pertaining to this topic, but those are my suggestions in case you are uncertain about where to start or what to say. The ultimate purpose in this prayer is to bring your heart before the Lord and pour it out for him to heal! Prayer is never about the words we say but the heart behind it (Jesus had some things to say about that)! So, go. Pray to God in thanksgiving, pray to him for patience and perseverance to what is to come. And never forget that while we are here on earth, we are living out a great promise that will come to completion one day when we all get to heaven. So, stay faithful, stay diligent, and stay praising God all the day long!