Waypoints: The Call of Abraham

Have you ever made someone a promise? Were you able to keep it? Have you ever been on the other side of one of those exchanges where someone promised you something and failed to follow through with it? It can be really hard for people to give, receive, and believe promises because they are so hard to keep and be kept. Someone who always keeps their promises is called a “man of his word.” But I would venture to guess that there are not many men or women of their word today that keep to what they say perfectly.

I can think of plenty of times in my own life where I told someone I would do something for them or would follow through in some way, but failed to do so. No matter what the circumstances are, we fail to live up to our end of the bargain all the time. And this is just in reference to the number of promises we have broken to others. Have you ever made God a promise? How many promises have you made to God that you were unable to keep?

It can be hard for us to put much weight behind someone’s promise whether it be from realizing the difficulty it is to fully and consistently follow through with those promises or the hurt and disappointment we have felt from past promises broken to us. So when God uses words of promise in Scripture, how can we be so sure He will follow through? How do we know that He is a God of His word?

The Bible is full of promises that God makes and institutes. While it would take more than what it written here to go into detail and show how He has truly fulfilled His word in each and every one of those instances, one promise can be the central proof of God coming through on His promises. Since the Fall of humankind in Genesis 3, God promised that an offspring would come from the first sinful couple, Adam and Eve, that would fix the problem that humanity faced with sin and its ugly consequences. Even in God’s call throughout Scripture, He continues to reference the promised offspring that would save humanity. This promise found its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ, God’s Son, and ultimately Jesus is God’s final Word. If you were at Oak Hill this past Sunday, Pastor Nick referenced the words that the Apostle Paul wrote in II Corinthians 1 that all of the promises that God has made have found their “Yes,” or their fulfillment, in Jesus Christ. We can be thankful that we serve a God whose promises we can trust and bank on and that He truly is a God of His word.

Ben Bigaouette