Certain Promises

Abraham. He's kind of a big deal -- not just to the Christians, but to the Jews and the Muslims as well. He was talked about a lot in Genesis, and all through the Old Testament. But, the New Testament continues to lift him up. Abraham was a giant in the faith, and even made it to the Hall of Fame for the giants of the faith in Hebrews 11. He's an incredible example to all of us.

God told him to leave his home and his people, and just go. When he got there, God would tell him ... and Abraham did.

God told him he'd be given a son, and land, and many descendants in the Abrahamic promise. It was a surety in God's economy.

But, it took f-o-r-e-v-e-r. The promise of a son took 25 years of waiting. 25 years. Of waiting. It had become an impossibility. Abraham was 100, and Sarah was 90. But their son was born. A son was given!

I have to wonder what Abraham and Sarah were like during those 25 years. Did they get discouraged? Did they continue to hold on to God's promises even though everything around them told them it was impossible? We do know that they tried to take matters in their own hands (see Hagar) and created a real mess for themselves and for future generations. This leads me to believe that Abraham and Sarah were real people ... like me. Real people who have real struggles and real doubt.

But, even with the doubts and the struggles, Abraham hung on. For all he was worth! And he had the extreme privilege of being able to hold that promised son in his old, weary arms.

The second part of the promise was that Abraham's family would have this land. It seems to me that this promise was never seen with Abraham's fleshly eyes. He never built a house, never had a front yard to mow, never had walls to paint. He lived in a tent and was a sojourner all his life. The only amount of property he ever bought was a burial plot for his wife Sarah.

What's up with that? Did God lie? Was He playing a cruel joke? Yet, we see that Abraham believed. He believed God and took it to heart. "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness." (Romans 4:3)

Get this. Abraham didn't see the end result of the promise. That actually happened over 300 years later before the Israelites took the promised land for their own. But he held on to it as a promise, as a certainty. He had absolute and total faith that God would do what He promised. He had seen it before (in the birth of his son Isaac) and he knew God would do it again.

What about me? How do I do with God's promises?

Whenever I'm starting to doubt or be discouraged that God might not come through this time, I know that I need to once again get back to the bedrock of my faith, to once again focus on the truths that I know stand firm. And what's that?

** That God loves me.

    ** That God is good, sovereign and in control.

        ** That God will do for my best and His glory.

I might not understand it all. It might not turn out the way I had planned. But my God is faithful. Just like He didn't take Abraham to a different country and leave him high and dry, so He won't with me. He hasn't brought me to this place, to this time, just to leave me to fend on my own. His promises have always stood and will continue to stand.

God WILL do what He has promised, according to 2 Peter 3:9. I just need to remember that what He has promised often doesn't look like what I had hoped for or planned, but He will use my current circumstances for my good and His glory. Always there. Always working. Always loving me. 

Like Abraham, I choose to hold on for all I am worth. I know Him. I know He is faithful, and I can trust Him to do what He promises.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. 

Hebrews 10:23

That Day ...

These last few years have marked a real change for me. I've always been the type who planned each day, who wanted everything to run by a schedule and be under control. I've learned, that even though that sounds admirable and extremely organized, it's basically an accident looking to happen. Because, girlfriend, ain't no how that things are always going to go according to MY plan. I've worked hard to change my thinking. But, I can because I've been given a little secret. Actually, it's not really a secret. It's in a published book that has been read for thousands of years.

It is so easy to look around and be overwhelmed by the brokenness and pain in this world. Sometimes, it's more than I can actually handle. The deep pain ...  fractured relationships ...  shattered dreams ... injustice ... fears ... anger ...  hatred -- don't look for too long, because you'll see every one of these on a daily basis. Our world is full of it, and it just seems to get worse, no matter how we try. Families destroyed by addiction. Couples heartbroken by infertility. Marriages devastated by infidelity. Parents estranged from prodigal children. It's all there.

One thing I hold on to: that Jesus will make all things new. He says that He will, that He's in the process even now. He talks about this in Isaiah 43:19, Revelation 21:5, and Isaiah 65:17. All that is broken, worn out, abused, discarded, destroyed, devastated -- it will be restored, made new, redeemed. It's what enabled me to walk my own long, dark road. I knew that maybe there would never be a reconciliation on this earth, but God would restore the brokenness that sin caused. It was a promise, a certainty. It. Would. Happen. It's all I had to hold on to -- the Word of my Lord.

I held on for all I was worth because nothing else seemed to matter. And now, I'm holding on for all I'm worth for someone else -- someone whose journey looks different than mine. Someone who is dealing with a different emptiness than I dealt with.

Here's the deal. I'm able to wrap my mind around the restoration of a relationship. I can see the resurrection from death to life, of the lame walking and the blind seeing. Those all "make sense" to me...but what about infertility? What is the restoration there? It's not like the empty wombs here will be filled with life there in heaven, in eternity.

I've wrestled with this. What will it look like? I'm not totally sure, but I'm thinking it will look something like this. The empty arms here will be full in heaven. There will be no emptiness. There will be no aching hearts or feeling like we're missing a piece of ourselves. There will be none of that. Instead, we'll be full -- fuller than we could ever be as a wife, or a mom, or a person. Our hearts won't long for anything because we'll be with Jesus. Period. We'll have all that our hearts will desire because we'll be in His presence. Period. Everything that was wrong with the world here, everything that sin left a stain on or broke, everything ... everything will be restored, resurrected. Exclamation mark!!

"Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen." (Ephesians 3:20-21)