Promise Giver, Promise Keeper

Anyone can make promises.  In any political season, they are a dime a dozen.  Cheap.  Often made with no intention of keeping.  Children, too, are great promise makers.   How many times have we heard one say to another, "I promise not to tell!"  On a more serious level, a lot of promising goes on at the altar of matrimony, or at the waters of baptism, or at the loan office in the bank and, as we know, some of those promises are not kept.  Some are made with no serious intention to keep them.  Some are broken before the water or the ink dries.  It is one thing to make promises; another to keep them.

 

Fortunately for us, God is not only a promise maker, but a promise keeper.  Our problem with God and His promises has nothing to do with Him being good for them, but that He seems in no hurry to keep them.  We could talk to Abraham about that one.  Or, maybe the Hebrew children who pleaded and waited for God to act and take them home.  In the first chapter of Romans, Paul writes, "...set apart for the gospel of God, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy scriptures,..." (Romans 1:2)  Once again, there is a long time between promise given and promise kept.   And, here we are in this gospel era waiting for the promise of the return of Christ.  Once again, it has been a long time since the promise was given.  Though not yet kept, it will surely be.

No, the problem we have is not with the faithfulness of God to keep His promises, but the way He waits to do so.  We would like for Him to operate within the boundaries of expediency, especially when our life or the life of our loved one hangs in the balance.  While He does, we do not have the luxury of a thousand years, at least not on this earth.  There is no doubt that God is a promise keeper.  But, He is also a promise keeper who waits until "...the fullness of time (has) come..."  (Galatians 4:4)  And, so we are called to wait.  Confident He will keep His promises.  Hoping for soon.