Over the last few days, I’ve been thinking a lot about the promises of God. As a church girl, I grew up reading stories about different people in the bible who were given specific promises from God. A promise from God is when He says that something will (or will not) be done, given, and/or come to pass. My favorite bible story is the one about Abraham and Sarah, and the promise they were given regarding having a child. Their story is found in Genesis, where God makes a promise to Abraham that He would make a great nation out of him. At the time, both Abraham and Sarah were in their nineties, way past Sarah’s childbearing years. It seemed like an impossible situation, but God ultimately did fulfill His promise and bless them with a baby, named Isaac.
The story of Abraham and Sarah is one of many in the Bible where God gives and fulfills a specific promise to people. One of God’s characteristics is that He is faithful to keep His promises. The bible also tells us that God does not change, meaning that He is the same God today that He was then, and that He is still giving and fulfilling promises to His children. *Cue If He did it before by Tye Tribbett*.
But even though I know these characteristics of God, it doesn’t mean that I don’t have questions about how His promises work. I’ll be honest and admit that I am sometimes doubtful about whether God has specific promises for me. I’ve has moments throughout my life where I was sure that God promised me something and ended up disappointed. In hindsight, I can admit that some of the things I called promises were really just my desires that I added God to (maybe one week we’ll talk about God’s permissive will). But sometimes, I really believed I heard God promise me specific things, and when the promise(s) was not fulfilled, I was heartbroken.
Now, I want to be very clear in explaining that there is a difference between the general promises of God given to all of us as believers, and specific, tangible promises given to people. In His Word God says that if we seek Him, we will find Him. That’s an example of a promise that we all have, and I don’t have doubts about these kinds of promises. What I doubt is whether God has promised specific, tangible things to me.
I know that promises from God can be a hot topic in the Christian community, and I’ve heard polarizing opinions on it. If you’re a single woman, I know you’ve seen those YouTube videos of women explaining how God promised them a specific man as their husband, and how it came true. But for every one of those videos, there is another video from a woman explaining how God does not promise you a specific person for a spouse, and/or that God does not promise you a spouse period. When we hear and see these conflicting realities, it can cause not only confusion, but comparison, jealousy, and envy. When you watch someone else get the very thing(s) you have been praying for, it can be hard to accept and disappointment and bitterness can creep in. This is especially true when you have been believing that God has promised those same things to you, and they don’t come to pass.
So my prayer for today and for next week is to remember the promises from God that you already have. He will never change His mind about you. He will never leave you nor forsake you. He has plans for you. And He has plans for me too.
See you next week~
The Obedience Diaries 