Jen’s Gem: God keeps all of His promises.
When I was younger, I vividly recall asking Santa to make me taller. I fully expected him to give me what I wanted. I don’t know where such faith in a jolly old elf came from, but I knew that if I just kept hoping and putting the request on my list, one day I’d wake up, be 5’7, and enjoy a life of bliss.
I’d never have to hem my pants, shop in the petite section, or watch in envy as taller girls snagged the cute guys. I grew an inch in my freshman year of college – pushing me solidly into the 5’3 range. Woo hoo! Only four more inches to go! Well, the buck stopped there and my dream of being supermodel tall came to an end.
I’ve no idea why I had such a desire to increase my stature but as I celebrate another National Short Girls Day, it’s clear that this wish was never granted. In fact, a recent physical showed a potential loss of three-eighths of an inch solidifying my moniker of five foot two, eyes of blue.
You may be thinking that this expectation was unrealistic. Looking at the gene pool from which I was born, being tall was a stretch. While my mother’s height of 5’5 gave me a glimmer of hope, my father’s stature made it unlikely.
Last week, I wrote about Abraham and Sarah’s unlikely expectation for a child. As they approached their centennial years, I think you’d agree that this was a crazy desire. Yet, God made it happen. How? It was because of their faith – their belief that if God promised them a child, then He would give them one. As I have said repeatedly, if God says it, it’s as good as done. He keeps His promises.
The other day I listened to a teaching that said there are over 6,000 promises in the Bible. Six. Thousand. God has kept every one of them. We make promises every day and we’re lucky if we keep a handful. Oh, we have good intentions and we mean well, but I think you’d agree that we all tend to overpromise and under deliver from time to time. Not God.
“Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.” (Mark 10:27)
Page after page after page of the Bible tell of God’s promises. Those same pages also give us clear instructions on how to tap into them. All we need to do is to believe in Him, trust in Him, and love Him and His Son. All we need to do is to expect God to do what comes naturally to Him – blessing His children.
Seems pretty simple, right? Think about it. Kids trust that their parents will do what they say. Millions of children around the world are trusting Santa to bring them their prized possessions in a few days. We trust that Amazon will deliver these gifts on time. We trust that the cookie recipe will yield the desired results. We trust that the Christmas lights will go on when we flip the switch.
I could go on and on. Our trust in the things of this world goes pretty deep. It is solidified every time the things we expect to happen, actually happen. Our experience and relationship to the entity we trust are what deepens it.
Think about the first time you shopped online. I’ll bet you were a bit nervous that your credit card information would be kept safe. Perhaps you wondered if that package would come on time. However, over time, when the merchant delivered as expected, you didn’t give it a second thought. In fact, our trust is now so deep that we allow them to store our credit card information so we can eliminate a step or two.
Our experience and relationship to the entity we trust are what deepens our trust and faith in them.
That kind of trust and faith are what God is seeking in His relationship with us. He wants us to have that simple faith, like a child at Christmas, waiting for Santa to make his wishes come true. He wants us to have the faith of those two centenarians thousands of years ago, who were hoping for a child.
If that kind of faith is too big for you to contemplate at first, know that even a tiny bit will reap big rewards.
“Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matthew 17:20 NIV)
More than anything, God wants us to believe that His greatest promise, fulfilled in the birth of the Messiah, His Son Jesus, opens the door to those thousands of blessings.
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” (Matthew 7:7 NIV)
This week, I’d like to encourage you to make a slight change to your Christmas list. Add a new item. Ask God to help you have the faith of Abraham, Sarah, and so many others. Ask Him to show you how much He loves you. Ask Him to show you how to tap into his treasure box of blessings.
Even though it’s only days before Christmas, you don’t have to worry that your gift won’t arrive on time. If God promised it. He’ll deliver it.