Today's devotional is written by Jan Andersen. The title is "PROMISES, PROMISES!" Jan writes about all the promises people make, and how many times they are not kept. She compares this to how God responds and makes promises.
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Today's Devotional
"PROMISES, PROMISES!"
written by
Jan Andersen
We are bombarded with promises all the time from all sorts of sources. There are promises on commercials that our laundry will be "whiter than white" with a certain detergent. Politicians promise to make changes that will better our lives. When we move away from an area, friends promise to keep in touch. Some of these pledges that we hear are made sincerely and others are empty promises made just to sway our opinion. Sometimes it is hard to separate fact from fiction without seeing evidence in the end that proves whether their words were sincere.
There are times when we, ourselves, make promises. Sometimes our assurances are more trustworthy than at other times. When we were children, perhaps we said to our parents we would take out the trash later, or if we get a dog we will feed and walk the dog daily. We all know how some of those commitments turned out! As adults we may promise others that we will remember something, but it falls by the wayside. There are times we make a pact with ourselves to eat better or exercise more, and we end up not always following through. Sometimes we even make promises to God, to pray more, to do Bible study more regularly, or to be more Christ-like in our daily lives. Some of these vows may start out being kept, but as time wears on we may falter again.
How well do we forgive those who promise us things when they do not carry through? How well have others forgiven us when we are the ones who fail? How well does God forgive all of us? Thankfully we have a good and gracious God who is merciful and forgives us time and time again. May we be as tireless in our compassion with others. On top of that, our Lord keeps all of his own promises to us. He even promises to keep his promises! On that we can place our whole trust. God's greatest promise to us is that we will have eternal life with him in heaven if we do not reject his free gift of salvation in Jesus who died on the cross in our place and rose again in glory. God is extremely patient with us as we are to spread this good news to others so that they too might have eternal life.
2 Peter 3:9 (NIV) The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
Dear Father in heaven, we thank you for being patient with us and forgiving us when we fail to keep our promises. Help us to be patient and forgiving with others and to spread the gospel through our words and actions. Your promises are reassuring and trustworthy. May we be examples of the same in our lives. In Jesus' name, Amen.
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Prayers are lifted up daily for
you by the Devotional Writers
and the Monthly Writing Staff
of Women's Focus Ministries.
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