Devotional.
I've had some lousy friends over the years.
People who said they'd always be there but weren't. Friends who moved away and just stopped making contact. Friendships that faded when life got busy. One or two that went sour over jealousy.
And it's made me cautious. When someone says "I promise," part of me braces for disappointment.
God is currently teaching me to be less cynical, especially in the context of friendships, but I'm very much a work in progress!
But God's promises are different.
God promised Abraham a land and a family as countless as the stars, at a time when he was old and didn't even have a son. He lived out his days in that land as a stranger, and when he died, the only part of it he owned was the field where he had buried Sarah.
A few generations later his descendants were slaves in Egypt, and they stayed there for four hundred years, long enough for many of them to wonder whether God had forgotten what He said.
Then, under Joshua, they walked into the land. This is how the book of Joshua sums it up: "Nothing failed of any good thing which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass."
All of it came to pass, every word, even after four hundred years.
And He's still the same God today.
God doesn't move away. He doesn't get busy, or jealous, or change His mind.
He has made promises to you too: to be with you, to never leave you, and to work all things together for good. Every one of them will come to pass.
You might be waiting on a promise right now. It might feel delayed or forgotten. Israel's wait took centuries, and it still ended exactly the way God said it would.
God's promises never fail. Whatever He has promised you, He will keep.
Prayer.
Lord, Your promises never fail, not one has ever broken, not one has been left unkept, every single word You've spoken has come true or will come true.
I struggle to trust promises in general because I've seen so many broken, by others, by myself, by circumstances that seemed guaranteed but fell through, but Your promises are different.
Teach me to build my life on the certainty of Your promises, to stake everything on what You've said, to trust that what You've promised is more reliable than anything else I could depend on.
I can count on Your promises completely, delays don't mean denial, circumstances contradicting them don't void them, time passing doesn't weaken them.
Help me stand firm on Your promises when everything suggests they won't come true, when delays make me doubt, when circumstances look like Your Word won't hold.
Remind me that You've kept every promise You've ever made, that Your track record is perfect, that betting my life on Your promises is the safest bet I could make.
Give me faith to trust promises I'm still waiting to see fulfilled, patience while I wait, confidence that what You've promised will happen because Your promises never fail.
Let me rest today knowing God's promises never fail, and what He's promised me is as certain as anything could possibly be.
In Jesus' name,
Amen.
