Promise


Psa 119:158  I took one look at the quitters and was filled with loathing; they 

	walked away from your promises so casually! 




	"I promise. You'll love this car and we'll help make those payments so 

easy, you won't even know you're making them."

	"You will feel so much better and have motivation to make it successfully 

through every day if you'll just take this pill three times a day."

	"Next year you'll be living in a mansion and driving the car of your 

dreams if you'll just follow my seven easy steps to unending wealth."

	"Sign up to receive your free dream vacation. Can't you see yourself on 

the beach, eating and drinking and being entertained to your heart's content?"

	"For the very best deal on all your favorite stuff, just come to my online 

store."

	"Just send your money to me and you can't imagine how blessed you'll be."



	There are promises being made from all sides. Everywhere you look and in 

the air around us are assurances given that something very wonderful is just 

waiting to be experienced. As many as there are and as often as they may come, 

there is most often an element of truth in their statement. While some may just 

be totally fraudulent, with deception as the real reason for their being made, 

most truly do have something of worth that might be found. The thing that is 

really common with all of these promises, though, is that each one of them is 

looking for a response. For each promise made, there is a stipulation associated 

with it. Even though there is the perception that you'll be getting something 

for nothing, there is a commitment of some kind required before even the 

simplest of promises can be kept. In every case there is something that will 

have to be given (time, money, energy, opinion, virtue, fidelity, etc.) in order 

to really get what is being held out to be so wonderful. 


	As these promises are packaged and made to look as wonderful and easily 

acquired as possible, there is something that the ones giving them desires first 

and foremost- the simplest response. If you'll just come into the store, fill 

out this registration form, agree that you'd like to have this, smile, and even 

say no, there is something begun in the smallest response that is hoped will 

turn into a full commitment. Because of the frequency and the large number of 

these things coming at us, though, it's easy to become very good at deflecting 

them with no response at all. Just separate the junk mail from the real mail and 

trash it. Just hang the phone up with the first requirement of an answer. Just 

turn away from the greeting that might turn into a relationship. After finding 

out so many times that there really is a cost to the fulfillment of any promise, 

there is a natural rejection that becomes our response and unwillingness to 

commit to any of them. After learning that maybe it really isn't as it seems and 

is subject to change at any time, the whole concept of promises can become 

something that is unreliable and too risky to be accepted at all. 


	We may really be in need of what is being presented and the change we need 

for our life may really be there in it, but conditioned with this rejection 

response it is so very natural to just walk away from it. We may even try it for 

a while, but then at the first realization that it may be a longer-term 

commitment than we had thought, look for a way out. Our easy and casual response 

of walking away from promises, while protecting us from many of the dangers and 

diversions that try to lure us away in some cases, also takes us away from the 

real promises of life that will take us to the answers we truly need. 


	For every promise made to us in the Word, there is the requirement of a 

response and a commitment. To really know the abundance of life that is sure to 

be so wonderful in the way of righteousness, there will have to be a lifetime 

commitment. It will not just force itself upon us and it will not go where it is 

unwanted, but the promise accepted and embraced will never fail to produce as it 

states. This assurance can be learned and acquired in our relationship with God, 

that as long as we continue walking in His way, there will never be a failure to 

provide as He has promised. Because of a developed confidence in His Word 

through proving it on a daily basis, we will be able to keep going towards it 

even when the cost and the price may seem to be too great. Having tasted of the 

greatest of promises, His very presence, there will be no commitment too large, 

no time too long, and no price too great for us to keep walking in the way that 

will be with Him. As long as what we are finding to be the results of our 

commitment is truly Him, there will never be a casual walking away from the 

greatest treasure of life in Christ. Our developed rejection response to the 

many other promises coming at us will be replaced by an embracing response to 

each of His promises and a commitment of life to meeting its requirements. 


Heb 6:18  God can't break his word. And because his word cannot change, the 

	promise is likewise unchangeable. We who have run for our very lives to 

	God have every reason to grab the promised hope with both hands and never 

	let go. 

Heb 6:19  It's an unbreakable spiritual lifeline, reaching past all appearances 

	right to the very presence of God 


6/23/04