This week, my wife and I will be boarding a ship for a week vacation in the Caribbean to celebrate our 35th Anniversary.  Each year is a milestone because its another year where two people have chosen to share one life together.  That in itself is a miracle, but once we moved past the twentieth year I realized that we had been together longer than we were single and even trying to remember what life was like apart is too distant a memory.  Milestone years are filled with memories of the promises made and the promises kept.  Through good and bad, happy times and sad, til death do us part.  These were just the first of many promises made between us.

Promises are Made to Give Hope

You know, its better to not make a promise than to make one and not keep it.  We all know that, but we all have done it as well.  We’ve made promises that we were unable to keep for one reason or another.  So, why do we make promises?  I think we do it for many reasons, but one very good reason is to give hope.  When I was growing up I had uncles that used to promise my sister and I all kinds of things.  We would get so excited, but they rarely followed through and words cannot express the disappointment we felt.  By the time we were teens, we didn’t even want to hear them.  We were just satisfied with seeing them whenever that opportunity came and we just ignored any promises they made.

Promises are supposed to be assurances that one will definitely do, give, or arrange something; undertake or declare that something will happen.  Then there are special promises that fall under a unique category called covenants.  These are promises that have legal bindings like a contract.  They are usually made with witnesses.  Whenever I perform a wedding, I remind those that have gathered to celebrate with the couple that they are witnesses to the covenant being made.  I do this because I have spoken to so many teens torn by broken marriages they have lost hope that true love and commitment is achievable.  The key word is hope.  Promises give us hope for better things in the future and a reason to keep going. I recently made a life altering decision based on a promise made by a company.  Without reason, they changed their mind and moved on, but my entire life was affected by their promise.  It was a great reminder to me that there is only one that we can trust.

God’s Promises are Bank

Numbers 23:19 “God is not a man, so he does not lie.  He is not human, so he does not change his mind.  Has he ever spoken and failed to act?  Has he ever promised and not carried it through?”

The answers are no.  Do you realize how many promises God makes to you in scripture?  The answer is a lot.  Many are conditional but others are not, and He keeps every one of them.  How about Jeremiah 29:11, “I know the plans I have for you, they are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”  This is God’s promise to you that regardless of how you were born He knew you and planned a great outcome from the beginning.  Through trials and challenges and even failures of your parents God has a plan to do a great work in your life.

How about this one, “Seek the kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.” Matt. 6:33.  God’s conditional promise to you that if you seek him, he will make sure your needs are met.  God’s book is a book of promises made, promises kept.  All of us need to remember these promises, it’s what keeps us during our times of challenge, its what gives us hope and like the bible says its a hope that does not disappoint because it comes from the only one that cannot lie or fail to deliver what was promised.

God’s Promises Empower Us to Keep Moving Forward

As we celebrate our wedding anniversary we can celebrate our decision to share life together even with the promises that we have failed to keep but, we can also celebrate the promises of the one who has never failed us.  His promises have empowered us to keep moving forward in hope knowing that all things both good but especially bad will work together for our good to those of us who love him and are called by his purposes.  Now that’s a promise with a guarantee!