Faith

Hebrews 4:20-21 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;

²¹ And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.

“My faith does not rest on God's promises.  My faith rests upon God's character.  Faith must rest in confidence upon the One who made the promises....”  A.W.Tozer

The truth of Tozer’s statement is self-evident, especially as I re-read the above scriptures.  Through the years I have focused on the ‘promises of God’ and really hadn’t given much thought to the fact that I was actually depending on the One who made it.  I knew who makes them of course, but my ‘faith’ was focused more on the promise, than the one who made it.  I know, it should not have been a revelation to me at this late stage in my life, but it was.

We often take promises from individuals today with a grain of salt.  It is so seldom they are truly fulfilled we are amazed when they are; but, we know that when certain people promise they will do something they will do it.  I wish I could say I have fulfilled every promise but, I haven’t. 

Most of the people I know fall into that category and when you talk about politicians almost all promise more than they can deliver.  It never ceases to amaze me how a person running for office will say this is “what I will do” when they know full well that they can’t deliver unless they convince a majority of those who have like positions to agree to it, yet they promise as if they are the only one making the decision.  Local officials, especially those running for an ‘executive’ position where they are the ones hiring and firing and controlling their office and personnel, can come closer to accomplishing their promises, but even they may be limited in what they can do by budgetary constraints – and of course they too must have cooperation from those that work with them.

Then we have businesses that promise they will do something for us, and most of them do fulfill those promises – if they don’t they don’t stay in business long.  We soon learn who delivers on their promises and who we can trust to perform.  I trust my mechanic because my experience with him, and those I know that use him, is that he is competent and honest and he hires competent honest mechanics.  They do what they say they will do and almost every time it is done right the first time, and if it isn’t they make good on it.  I deal locally whenever possible, because I know the people and know the quality of their work is as promised.

Unfortunately, as we look at larger companies or corporations we cannot always count on their promises.  Sometimes it is because personnel slack off, or are incompetent; sometimes it is because they have shareholders that want dividends, so corners are cut on quality for the sake of profit.  We all know of the documented cases of corporations knowing that something is wrong with a product and they weigh the cost of fixing it with the detriment or inconvenience it may cause a few consumers; they don’t fix it because the risk to life and limb is ‘acceptable’ vs. the cost of fixing the problem – and people become ill or injured and even die.

While people can and do let us down, God never does.  We can count on His promises because He is Who He is, not because we are who we are.  Yes, there are some conditions, the Israelites were told He would protect them as long as they obeyed His commands, when they stopped obeying, He allowed them to be persecuted, enslaved and even killed to discipline them and to make them realize they needed to turn back to Him.  The Old Testament is full of promises to them and to individuals; most are conditioned on their dedication to Him and all to their obedience to Him.

It is no different in the New Testament.  Everything God promises is predicated on our acceptance of Jesus Christ being the Son of God; Him being the sacrifice for our sins and our accepting Him as the Lord of our life.  God is Who He is; God.

Too many people try to apply the Biblical promises to their life without meeting the conditions.  They do not know who God is; they put their faith in the promise, not in the One making it. People can quote scriptural promises, but if they don’t have true faith in God, for Who He is, then they do not apply and He has no obligation to honor them, they can quote scriptural promises all they want but to no avail.  He sometimes will answer a prayer from someone who has not accepted His Son, but He is in no way obliged to do so, and when He does it is to serve HIS purpose, not the person whose prayer was answered.

The chorus, “Every promise in the Book is mine, every chapter every verse ever rhyme,” holds true only if we have accepted Who God is; we have accepted His Son; and we have recognized Him as Lord of our life and are serving and obeying Him.  But it is Him in whom we have faith, “what he had promised, he was able also to perform,” not the promise itself.

From the ColumbiaRiverGorgeous