The Promises of God
Do you keep your promises? Do you trust God to keep His promises?
Verse of the Day
‘Understand, therefore, that the Lord your God is indeed God. He is the faithful God who keeps his covenant for a thousand generations and lavishes his unfailing love on those who love him and obey his commands.’
Today’s Devotional
Does it mean more to you when someone says, “I promise”? In human language, there are certain declarations that carry more weight. When we are under oath in a courtroom, our truthfulness is required and any dishonesty is punishable by law. When we have a wedding ceremony, the declarations, or vows, speak to our intent to enter into a binding covenant with another person. But in everyday communications, can you guarantee that you or anyone else is always being truthful?
God is incapable of lying. God is incapable of anything other than truth. So when I decided to write about the “promises of God”, my first thought was that the whole Bible is a promise from God. And it is. We are going to spend some time over the next few weeks looking at certain things that the Bible declares. Our job is going to be to decide whether or not we truly believe these things to be true.
Look at today’s verse again. God is indeed God. The God of the Bible created the world and everything in it. This world is His alone, even though you can look around and see the evidence of humans not living out this truth. But if God really is God, am I living each day under the banner of that truth? Or do I forget and think that this world is about me sometimes?
God is faithful. But to whom? According to today’s verse, God is faithful to those who keep his covenant. To those who submit to His God-ness and live according to His will. And one of the things we are commanded to do is to believe in God’s God-ness.
Do we believe God’s Word in a broad, general sense but struggle with believing it for ourselves on an individual basis?
I believe that God is truth, and that every word He says is a promise. I also believe that there is a level of mystery to God that I will never fully comprehend. Personally, I am glad that my God is beyond my understanding.
For today, I’d like for us to ask ourselves if we really believe what God says to each of us through His Word. Do we believe what He declares about us? Do we believe what He says is true of Himself? Do we believe, like today’s verse says, that God is a God who lavishes us with unfailing love?
The promise for today is that God is God and I am not. That God wants my obedience. That there is an unending supply of extravagant love that God longs to continually shower over me. My side of the covenant is simple but not easy: to live for Him. Do we believe that promise?
Journal Prompts
Answer only the questions that seem relevant to you today.
How can you submit to God’s God-ness today?
How have you felt God’s love being lavished on you in the past?
Have you ever struggled with believing in what God says in the Bible is true for you personally? How?
Write out a declaration to God of who He is to you.