Broken Promises
Even if… I will patiently wait for God’s Promises
Broken promises. I can still hear the noise of children playing, all my friends running around the playground, playing hopscotch, skipping rope and swinging on monkey bars. I can almost audibly hear the rhythmic sing-song, “Cross my heart, hope to die... Stick a needle in my eye.” This elementary scene runs through my head whenever I consider how important God’s promises are.
I’m not sure if kids today use this phrase when they make promises, but it’s one my generation used. Whether it was a promise to tell the truth or a promise that we wanted to guarantee; this is how we made our oath. We took promises seriously way back in the early years; but even more so now as an adult when it comes to God’s promises.
What about broken promises? Have you experienced that? A broken promise can make you feel betrayed, cheated or even worthless. It’s heartbreaking. Can you think of a time when someone made a promise to you and they failed to deliver? I bet you were expecting that you would receive something of value, right? I can only imagine your past disappointment or perhaps you are still disappointed? Maybe, you are the person who failed to deliver something as promised?
It is especially heartbreaking at times when it seems like God breaks his promises to us. Whether it has happened to you directly or indirectly it is hard to reconcile. You are not alone! Hebrews 11 is a tragic litany of endless broken promises from God, so it seems? After exploring long history lessons of riveting stories about the ancient heroes of faith in Hebrews 11, verse 39NKJV summarizes, “And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise.”
What!? Wait a minute! These are hard words to read and even harder to understand. This makes no sense. The cynic in me protests! How can this be? The patriarchs of the bible were commended for their faith… yet they didn’t receive what was promised. With my bible lying open and my jaw dropped on its page, I admit that I am confused. So it’s OK to break promises? There must be another explanation!
Could it be that God fulfilled a better promise to our ancient Heroes? They would surely see the promise of eternal life, but the promises in this temporal life would be fulfilled in another way. At first glance we realize that the patriarchs didn’t get to see their promises come to fruition before they died, plain and simple. After a deeper look through Hebrews 11 we see that the promises where fulfilled with a new covenant of salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Heroes lived with ultimate faith of this until their final breath. Talk about an example of faith! An example of living life completely trusting in God with endurance! I think I need to point out that they believed this even-though Jesus had not been born yet.
For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.
Romans 15:4 NKJV
We can glean hope from these history lessons that teach us about endurance and faith. The promises that God made were made to glorify His Son and that was fulfilled. How wonderful would it be to take every promise God has made to you and realize that each promise will come to fruition- more importantly His promises will bring His Son glory. It boils down to this: He gave you the promise that He will be glorified. A simple change in perspective and we can appreciate that the biblical stories of the patriarchs are for our encouragement so we can have hope.
So even if it seems that God’s not keeping His promise, you can be assured that His promise will indeed to be kept for His Son’s glory. Wait patiently my sweet sister, there is a bigger picture! Have a child like faith and while you are waiting, be encouraged to have endurance so that you can rest in hope.
Sheri Page has been married to her husband for 10 years and cherishes their blended family of 6 adult children and 9 grandchildren. She has worked in and alongside ministries for over 30 years. She has served many roles with in the walls of a church including, a Women’s Ministry director and assistant to a Care Pastor where she served people who were walking through Baptism, Celebrate Recovery, Divorce Care and benevolence. Sheri loves to share her curiosity and unique understanding of life with Jesus by her side. She is a 5 year breast cancer survivor and considers that experience to be the one of the greatest gifts God has given her. More writings from Sheri can be found on her blog: https://thelordsdwellingplace.com/