Promises...

...I have thought a lot about God and his promises this past year. Through all of this musing and wrestling I have found some illumination.

There are over a thousand promises from God in the bible. Here are some of those close to my heart:

Romans 8:28 

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

Joshua 1:5 

"I will never leave you nor forsake you."

Isaiah 42:6  

"I, the LORD have called you  in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles"

Jeremiah 29:13 

"You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all of your heart."

Psalm 37:4 

"Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart."

What I know is that God is sovereign and He is good. If He at any point ceased to be those things, He would cease to be God.  What I struggle with, and I think most people struggle with, is seeing how God is good even when there is so much darkness in the world. A question that is so often asked is: "If God can fix                      ,then why doesn't he?" I have wondered that so many times this past year. Personally this year has been one of waiting on God and for him to fulfill his promises: to bring healing to dear friends, to fulfill the deep desire I have for a husband and family, to bring me back to India,  to allow me to see revival in India. Holding on to God and his promises has been beautiful and terrible. There is no better place to be than to be grasping tightly to God, but when you only see glimmers of him working and not hard evidence, you begin to get weary.  But through this year I have found hope, realizing that maybe I don't know what I am really waiting for. Yes I know I am waiting for God to fulfill his promise, that is black and white, but the fulfillment of the promises and my expectation of what that will look like may not be in sync.

Two thousand years ago, God's chosen people were waiting too. They were waiting for their Messiah, the deliverer. They were expecting and planning on it being someone to rescue them from the oppression from Rome. They were expecting someone like the victorious King David to come and beat Rome's butt. What came instead was a little baby, who had to be born in a barn because no one could make room for him in their house. What came was a man who grew up like a normal Jewish boy to work as a carpenter; a man who waited 30 years to begin his ministry, a ministry which didn't champion the mainstream Jewish culture, as was expected, but opposed it. He was a man who talked nothing of political uprisings or overthrowing Rome, but of an eternal spiritual kingdom, one that doesn't have boundaries or dynasties.

A huge portion of the promises in the Bible are about the Messiah. These promises had been studies for centuries. By the time Jesus showed up you would think that the Jews would have understood what they were looking for, but because of their misplaced expectations they ended up executing the very man they were waiting for. How many times do we do this, saying "God you couldn't really be in this." ? What if God gave the Jews what they wanted? We would not have gotten the Jesus of the gospels. We would not have gotten the expression of God's love, grace and mercy in human form. We would not have gotten the perfect sacrifice that makes is possible for all to come to God. The Jesus that came is vastly better than the Messiah that was expected. If Jesus had been a military savior, we might be reading about him in history books, but he would never change our lives today.

After realizing this I was challenged to evaluate my expectations of the promises of God. We all need to get our focus off what we want, or think we need, and put our focus on the character of God. When the day comes when I see God fulfill the promises he has given me, I am ready to lay down my expectations, and anticipate something better than I can even imagine. 

~If you want to read more look at this article in Relevant Magazine