How Does God Honor His Promises?
Adapted by Heather Moran from Pastor John's message on January 9, 2011
I am a planner by nature and will often plan out (usually well in advance) how an event “should” happen. I know that I have a difficult time when reality does not match my assumptions or expectations of how the event is “supposed” to happen. On Sunday, Pastor John talked about how we, as Christians, have expectations of how God is supposed to work in our lives. When our expectations of how we think God should work does not match up with reality we lose on two levels. The first level of loss comes as we suffer through whatever our reality is for the time being. The second level of loss comes as our faith gets shattered because God did not do what we thought He should. Even mature Christians can wrestle with their expectations of God not being met. However, we should rest assured that God does indeed honor His promises, even if it is not the way we think He should. The key to seeing how God honors His promises can be found in Isaiah 40:31, which says “but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” When most of us read this verse we envision the eagle soaring high above the earth, and we want to be that eagle. I often think of this verse when I am jogging on the treadmill and hope to run without growing weary. The verse talks of soaring, running, and walking, but we can’t do all three of these things at the same time! The same is true with God honoring his promises. One way that God will honor a promise is that He will miraculously intervene. He could miraculously take us from a situation or remove the situation from us and, when this happens, we are soaring. A biblical example of this would be the Israelites leaving Egypt and crossing the Red Sea. They were hemmed in on both sides, but God intervened and parted the waters. The Israelites were soaring in their faith after this event, like the eagle in our verse. Other times God empowers His people and runs along side them. The life of Moses is an example of God interacting with His people. When Moses rescued the Israelites from Egypt it was not a “quick” miracle like the parting of the waters. Moses and the Israelites worked for their release and God worked right along side of them. God empowered Moses to accomplish the task he was given, to run and not grow weary. Most times, God just does something inside of us and all we have to do is walk. There is no obvious miracle and He doesn’t give us the power to change the situation we are in; but He does something beautiful within us, and we are able to walk with Him. If you put your hope in God, you might soar or you might run, but God always promises that you will walk with Him and not faint. So keep on walking!
January 11, 2011
