The promises of God are the bedrock of our faith and the foundation of our Christianity. On a personal level, they are the guideposts to our life journeys as well as the energy that fuels each journey. They also provide the assurance needed when troubles come that we will prevail in the end and be rewarded for our perseverance.
In times of great loss—loss of health, a home, a job, a loved one through death---we find comfort in God’s promise that He will not give us more than we can bear, and that He will be with us through difficult times. Often the trouble we face is the result of our own bad choices, and sometimes it is punishment for our sins, individually or collectively, as in the time of Noah when God destroyed civilization except for Noah’s family because of their sinfulness, and during the Babylonian captivity when the Jewish Nation lost their temple, their freedom, and their favored position in God’s eyes.
Just as God promised in Isaiah 54: 9-10 after the flood never to destroy the earth by water again, He also promised Israel that he would never again punish them with captivity. In both instances, it took years to recover from the devastation, but the promises provided direction, hope, and finally, fulfillment.
God made another kind of promise to his people repeatedly in both the Old and New Testaments, that he would send a Messiah, a promise that would take centuries to fulfill, culminating in the visit to Mary by the angel Gabriel to announce that she would bear a child (Luke 1: 30) who would be the Savior of the world, and His birth in a stable in Bethlehem (Luke 2: 7).
That child/Savior now lives in our hearts, guiding us, inspiring us, and instilling his peace in us as we celebrate Him as the “reason for the season” in the midst of a troubled world.
Ozelle Scrutchins