“I will never leave you or forsake you.” “Seek and you will find.” “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” “The righteous cry out and the Lord hears them, and delivers them from trouble.” Thousands more just like these. They seem so incredible. They seem so hard to believe. Too good to be true. Why would God make us so many outrageous promises? And then you look around and wonder, “Where are God’s promises?” Sometimes it seems like God has not fulfilled His promises. It seems like God is ignoring us or absent or far away.
So let me ask you a question. And don’t just answer it quickly. Pause. Look at your life and your heart. “Do you really believe the promises of God?”
Sometimes I wonder if I really do. Sometimes I do and other times I don’t. If I truly believe the promises of God why do I worry about the future, worry about money, fight for control, let my heart wander, take matters into my own hands, or work as if God won’t come through. I could go on and on.
I’m sure many of us struggle with these same doubts. We know, cognitively, that God will be faithful, will grant us grace, will stand with us, and guide us. Yet many times we find it hard to wait on God’s promises. While we wait we fear, doubt, get discouraged, and our faith grows weak.
Abraham was given a promise and he waited years for God to fulfill a seemingly impossible promise. Paul Trip writes, “While it’s true that Abraham considered the facts, they weren’t the focus of his meditation. No, his focus was on the God who had made this promise. Every day Abraham would get up and remind himself that the God who had made the promises on which he was waiting was absolutely able to deliver them.
"The God who made heaven and earth would have no trouble causing an old woman to deliver a promised child! Abraham didn’t fill his mind with his own weakness and the seeming futility of the situation. No, he filled his mind again and again with the glory of God’s immeasurable power, and as he did, he grew stronger and stronger in faith.”
So what if we follow Abraham’s example? Whatever challenges you may face in the year ahead, nothing is too hard for the Lord. Abraham was a hundred years old. His wife Sarah was ninety. God promised them a son. They said, in effect, ‘that is impossible’. This is the context of the great rhetorical question: ‘Is anything too hard for the Lord?’ (Genesis 18:14). The answer is ‘No’.
The LORD’s promises are pure, like silver refined in a furnace, purified seven times over. (Psalms 12:6 NLT)
Promises for your family, Pastor Rey Diaz
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