PROMISES, PROMISES

My wife and I have been going through the ordeal of trying to get our first home built. We are grateful to the Lord that he provided us the opportunity through an inheritance that we had never experience before, but there are times because we have waited for decades that the heart wilts with impatient.

During this event we have had to deal with lenders, contractors, the county department and architect. And the one constant is that no one so far has given us a promise that has actually been kept as stated in terms of time. What we were told would only take two weeks sometimes stretches into a month or more. Which naturally does little to inspire any encouragement on our part.

But of course this is just a microcosm in a way of how often one experiences other such promises. It is sad, yet it seems that so many situations in life involved being given promises that turn out not to be true.

One could hardly be blamed for being skeptical or cynical in the midst of such experiences. If it happens enough times I can even appreciate how one would get totally unwilling to rest ones hopes on anyone or anything.

In the spiritual realm we are often exposed to a wide variety of teachings regarding the promises of God in the scriptures. And more than one ministry and built a large and thriving congregation from teaching how you can expect God to bless you and give you all you want out of life. There are many variations on this approach, but they almost always garner a large following.

It would be hard to fault people for wanting God to do in their lives what circumstance and denied them. Who could be blamed for wanting health, prosperity and all the other items of this life.

However I have also seen the reality of times when the faithful don’t life the popular version of being blessed. They experience all the usual problems of life that are common to most people.

I think the truth is that is the way life is for most people whether the follow the Lord or not. More than one Christian has no doubt been left bitter and angry when trusting God for a promise and then life gets worse. It would only be natural to want to know why?

And to that end I think you could fill a library with interpretations. It can be said that at times we do through our doubt and refusal to believe God’s promises not experience them. However that is not the ONLY reason.

Ultimately we know that God sees our heart. Which means he understands when a given “blessing” will actually be harmful to our spiritual life. There are many other reason too. But ultimately I think the important part is that we ask ourselves most of all if we have truly sought his promise for the right reasons and not from selfish motives. Only each person can answer that. And if the answer is yes, then regardless of what others think we know with the Lord we have made the right choice. May God grant each of us the peace to walk by faith even when in what we feel is a desert of blessing.