Promises

You make promises. I make promises. Some we've kept and some we haven't. And we've had promises made to us as well. Some were kept, and some were not. We've heard promises such as: “I’ll be there for you”, “I won’t leave you”, “I will return”, “til death due us part”, “your mother and I will always be together”, “I love you”. Some were kept, some were not. Those kept you celebrate and those not kept have caused us to battle bitterness. Maybe its even made it difficult for you to trust promises.

There's a Promiser who keeps His promises.

LISTEN TO THESE PROMISES

-We’re being renewed into the image of our Creator – Col. 3:10

-He will wipe away every tear from our eye

-No more death, no crying, no pain. The first things have passed away.

-A new heaven and new earth where righteousness dwells

-Jesus talks about the renewal of all things.

-His glory will be so bright as to make a moon out of the sun – Rev. 21:23

-Our present suffering doesn’t compare to future glory.

-When He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is – I John 3:2

-When you know and believe the truth about God’s promise, it makes you free.

-We will see the greatest glory and be changed by that glory.

-The gift is not like the trespass

-God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ

-We have a Redeemer

What does this mean to our lives? Do our lives spell out the promise? Do our lives reveal that we are children of God? Because even now, God is making things new in our lives. We don’t just sit here and wait, like on a bench waiting for a bus. Look at your life, your relationships, what God’s doing in your heart. Too often we go about our lives not aware of the huge realities around us. The promise to live out. We just head to class. We just sit bored at work.

Do we live day after day feeling the magnitude of it all, being caught up in belonging to God. Jesus lived in such a way that people knew something was going on with Him. He had the aroma of God. And too often, our lives are missing the flavor, the aroma of eternity. Why so much joy?

Train yourselves in the Lord. Be in the word. Be on your knees. Be in community. Paul teaches in Romans 12 “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” – it’s a picture of your mind being made new.

In the meantime, we must pray for each other. We must give generously. We must care for the suffering. We must go. We must send people out. We must provide refuge. We must walk into the spaces of our lives and realize that the people around us don’t live in this mess with hope, they live in this mess with confusion and frustration and despair, or even apathy. And when we choose to live like this, we proclaim God’s love and glory, His Kingdom come, and we show redemption. We choose to love our enemies, we choose to bless those who curse us. It’s a life about the way of the cross. It’s a Spirit-led life.

When we live in hope, we live differently. God is our treasure, not this earth or anything in it. When we believe the promise, we don’t try and get the most toys, we don’t give all we have for earthly success, people or success aren’t our highest dreams. We live blown away that the Creator of God would see us in our sin and still choose to justify us by His Son, empower us with His Spirit, adopt us as children, and faithfully promise us that we will live eternally with Him.