I Promise

•August 5, 2013 • Leave a Comment

Thanks to http://angelkath.deviantart.com/art/keep-the-promise-44344052

prom·ise [prom-is]  noun, verb, prom·ised, prom·is·ing. 

noun 

1. a declaration that something will or will not be done, given, etc., by one: unkept political promises. 

2. an express assurance on which expectation is to be based: promises that an enemy will not win. 

3. something that has the effect of an express assurance; indication of what may be expected.

A promise is a commitment…

Genesis 15:1-6

The Lord’s Promise to Abram

15 Later the Lord spoke to Abram in a vision, “Abram, don’t be afraid! I will protect you and reward you greatly.”

2 But Abram answered, “Lord All-Powerful, you have given me everything I could ask for, except children. And when I die, Eliezer of Damascus will get all I own. 3 You have not given me any children, and this servant of mine will inherit everything.”

4 The Lord replied, “No, he won’t! You will have a son of your own, and everything you have will be his.” 5 Then the Lord took Abram outside and said, “Look at the sky and see if you can count the stars. That’s how many descendants you will have.” 6 Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord was pleased with him.

Thanks to: http://www.ForestWander.com [CC-BY-SA-3.0-us (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/us/deed.en)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons

 

God promised Abraham that he would reward him and protect him.  Yet Abraham still wants more.  He wants children, and God promises him he will have many descendants.

To be honest, I’m a bit jealous of this promise to Abraham.  He tells God what he wants, and God promises to fulfil it – in abundance.  It all seems so simple.  Yet life is not always like that.

How many of us cry out to God for something that we want, and yet we never see it, never receive that same promise from God.  It’s enough to make you lose faith in God ( or yourself?  Maybe it’s me?  I’m not as good/worthy as Abraham)

Why does God promise this to Abraham?  Why doesn’t he promise it to me?  Is it a general promise that whatever we want, God will provide; or a specific and necessary promise to Abraham.

I genuinely think it is the latter.  We hear lots in the bible about promises God does keep, but I suppose no one bothered recording the ones they didn’t think he had!  There were people who had to struggle with their life as it was, seemingly with God not answering their pleas.  Think Job, think my hero Habakkuk.  We cry out to God, and it appears to make no difference, it seems he’s not listening – or if he does he ignores us.  We long for things to be different.  Our heart breaks.  Our lives are lived in despair.  Why is God not answering my longing?

And you read passages like this and it all seems so simple.

Yet, faith is just that, as we considered last week. If we believe in God, part of that is trusting him.  Allowing him to do what is right, not what we want.  And relying on him to sustain us in our pain and frustration; to wipe our tears, hold us safely in his arms as we sob, and giving us the strength when we think we can no longer go on with how things are.

Habakkuk 3:17-19

Trust in a Time of Trouble

17 Fig trees may no longer bloom,
    or vineyards produce grapes;
olive trees may be fruitless,
    and harvest time a failure;
sheep pens may be empty,
    and cattle stalls vacant—
18 but I will still celebrate
because the Lord God
    saves me.
19 The Lord gives me strength.
He makes my feet as sure
    as those of a deer,
and he helps me stand
    on the mountains.

I do think God keeps his promises, ultimately.  The answers may not be what we think they should be, they may not be as spectacular as Abraham’s was, they may take longer than we think (remember Abraham took matters into his own hand when he thought God wasn’t delivering on this promise quick enough – God has a time and a place).  But God is faithful and true.  He is worthy of our faith and trust, he delivers on his promises, whether we recognise it or not.  But we have to give him the scope to fulfil them his way and in his time.  And allow him to give us the strength to hang on in there while he does.

Thank you Lord
for your promises.
I don’t always understand them,
sometimes I want to push them,
to make them work the way I want.

Thank you Lord,
that you know what is the very best,
for me
and for the complex web that is the world.

Thank you
that you hold me tight,
when it feels that my world is falling apart,
not following the path I expected,
not fulfilling my dreams.

Thank you
that you never let me go,
that however much it feels like it at times,
I will not drown,
that you have a deeper purpose in and through me,
that your promises are not in vain
– though sometimes unexpected.

Lord,help me not to be blinkered
in what I see
and what I fail to see

Posted in bible, faith, God, Lectionary, life, Religion, theology
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Making Life Safe

•August 1, 2013 • 3 Comments

We want to make life safe.  We take out insurance policies for if something breaks or is lost or stolen.  We want to feel secure.

We also want to make sure that we have our fair share…

Kate Jewell [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons

Luke 12:13-21

A Rich Fool

13 A man in a crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to give me my share of what our father left us when he died.”

14 Jesus answered, “Who gave me the right to settle arguments between you and your brother?”

15 Then he said to the crowd, “Don’t be greedy! Owning a lot of things won’t make your life safe.”

16 So Jesus told them this story:

A rich man’s farm produced a big crop, 17 and he said to himself, “What can I do? I don’t have a place large enough to store everything.”

18 Later, he said, “Now I know what I’ll do. I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones, where I can store all my grain and other goods. 19 Then I’ll say to myself, ‘You have stored up enough good things to last for years to come. Live it up! Eat, drink, and enjoy yourself.’”

20 But God said to him, “You fool! Tonight you will die. Then who will get what you have stored up?”

21 “This is what happens to people who store up everything for themselves, but are poor in the sight of God.”

The age-old family argument.  Dad’s estate hasn’t been split fairly – allegedly.  The man seems to think that sorting out his finances will make his life safe.

Jesus points out the same thing as the Psalmist: having all the wealth in the world, will not save you from the inevitable end we all reach, rich or poor, we all die.  Storing up anything – money, food, a good life-insurance policy – none of it is of eternal significance.

Building barns and filling them with our crops, creating for ourselves symbols of our wealth and status are not what count.

The important thing is true riches – knowing God, loving others well, making life better for those around us.  They are God’s ways.

Lord,
may I know
what is important
– and seek that.

Help me not to be
distracted
by things that others may judge
of value
and worth;
but always to seek you.

May you,
and you alone
be my guide
and my measure

Posted in bible, calling, faith, God, Jesus, Lectionary, life, Religion, theology
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Know What’s Good For You

•July 31, 2013 • Leave a Comment

We all have those things in life that we would like to do – that is not always good for us, or the right thing to do. Something that may seem like it would make life simpler for us – but at the peril of others.  Something we’d enjoy for the moment, but what about the ongoing cost?

Colossians 3:1-11

3 You have been raised to life with Christ. Now set your heart on what is in heaven, where Christ rules at God’s right side. 2 Think about what is up there, not about what is here on earth. 3 You died, which means that your life is hidden with Christ, who sits beside God. 4 Christ gives meaning to your life, and when he appears, you will also appear with him in glory.

5 Don’t be controlled by your body. Kill every desire for the wrong kind of sex. Don’t be immoral or indecent or have evil thoughts. Don’t be greedy, which is the same as worshiping idols. 6 God is angry with people who disobey him by doing these things. 7 And that is exactly what you did, when you lived among people who behaved in this way. 8 But now you must stop doing such things. You must quit being angry, hateful, and evil. You must no longer say insulting or cruel things about others. 9 And stop lying to each other. You have given up your old way of life with its habits.

10 Each of you is now a new person. You are becoming more and more like your Creator, and you will understand him better. 11 It doesn’t matter if you are a Greek or a Jew, or if you are circumcised or not. You may even be a barbarian or a Scythian, and you may be a slave or a free person. Yet Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.

So, having ascertained that money isn’t everything, we are now pointed to what is important – God, and the meaning he gives to our lives.

We’re warned not to be greedy, not to look for the wrong things, or even think the wrong things – to do so shows we have learned nothing.  There are quite some challenges to behaviour in there… they certainly make not eating too many cakes or taking a short cut seem inconsequential.  How often do we hurt others by our behaviour, words or just thoughts?  If people could read our minds, what would they think of us?  Remember God can!  Those things, and others that apply in our lives, we know, are not things becoming of people who know what God has done for them.  If God is the one that gives meaning to our lives, then we should be looking to live his ways – the old way of our life, however much simpler it may have seemed, is not the way to live.

And if we return also to understanding God and his ways, this suggests that the way to do that is to try to live more like him.  I know that when we’re in confusion and despair, that seems like the last thing possible, but if we can learn to live God’s ways when we are more confident, they may become a pattern for a life and hold us up when it is more difficult.

Our life is in Christ.  These things may seem impossible to us, but the great news about God, is he is making them possible in us.  It’s not something we have to do, it is a gift he gives us.  If we let it be, our life is hidden – hidden behind Jesus, who died and rose again so it could be so.

Lord,
I pray that my life
may look like I follow you.
My actions,
my words,
my thoughts
may be the ones you have,

Forgive me
for the times they are not,
when I take the apparently easy route,
the way that looks fun,
rather than your way.

Thanks you for all that Jesus did,
that my life may be hidden,
and his be given.

May I live like it is so

Posted in bible, faith, God, Jesus, Lectionary, life, Religion, theology
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