Perhaps you remember the popular bumper sticker that says “God said it. I believe it. That settles it for me.” This sounds all “Christiany”, but I’m here to tell you that it is nothing more than a fine example of “Christianese” that isn’t exactly accurate. Wait a minute, you say…am I saying that God doesn’t keep His promises, or that God lies? NO! Read on. Let’s start with a definition.
What is a promise? A promise is defined as “Words said or written, binding a person to do (or not to do) something.”
Here are some examples of promises:
1) “I forgot my wallet today. If you buy me lunch today, I’ll buy you lunch tomorrow.”
2) “Mom, Dad, I know I got a bad grade on my test, I’ll do better next time!”
3) “I’ll keep you in my prayers.”
All of these are promises that we have all likely made at one point in our life. We’ve probably even broken them more than once. If we break them, we MUST take full blame for that, no matter what “came up out of the blue.” Perhaps we forgot. Perhaps an extenuating circumstance prevented us from keeping our promise. After all, we can’t control the weather. We can’t help it if we were involved in an automobile accident that wasn’t our fault, so we couldn’t go to work and pay back our lunch loan (Though I am sure the person you made that promise to will surely understand, but you should still make good on it when you can).
Please, though, if you make a promise to pray for someone...please only say that if you really are going to do so. It's become such a "thing to say" to other people these days, just to make them feel better at the moment. If someone says to you, "Please pray for me" and you aren't sure you can make that promise, pray for them right then and there so you don't break your promise to them because you forgot.
In jest, we say “Promises were made to be broken.” Sadly, many of us help build that into a reality. Divorce is a prime example, after all, a wedding vow is a promise that you will love your spouse forever. Not paying your bills on time is another example. Using a credit card, or getting a loan, is, in a sense, a promise that you will pay it back on time, and without default.
Don’t get me wrong, I realize that there are extreme circumstances, and there are cases to support both examples as being unavoidable, but what it really all boils down to, you shouldn’t make the promise, if you cannot keep it. A promise isn’t something you intend to keep. It is something you must keep.
Fortunately, God keeps all of His promises and He will never break them, no matter the circumstance, because, quite simply, He does not make a promise that He cannot keep no matter what. God doesn’t get sick. He doesn’t get surprised by bad weather. He has no transportation issues whatsoever.
Something we’ll never hear God say: “I really wanted to keep that promise, but something came up…I’m so sorry.”
Some of God’s most awesome promises:
John 14:3 – “I will come again.” Sure, there are some people that refuse to believe this, and some that do not want Him to return, but will that prevent Him from coming again? Nope!
Hebrews 13:5 – “I will never leave you.” We’ve all experienced rejection. We’ve all been left alone by someone we never thought would leave us. It’s sometimes considered a cliché to try to comfort someone going through rejection that God will never leave them, but the truth of the matter is, He won’t. Still, if you know someone going through rejection, instead of telling them that God will never leave them, show them that you will be there. God will use you to encourage them. One day, hopefully, they will see that God used you to help fulfill that promise.
Matthew 17:23 – “On the third day, I will rise again.” People refused to believe this. Did it change the fact that it would happen? That it did happen? Nope! God keeps His word no matter what. Always.
So, back to that bumper sticker…perhaps it should read, “God said it. That settles it whether I believe it or not.” You don’t have to believe it for it to actually come true.
That is all.
Gregg
