From the Editors December 10, 2012 Issue

Promises kept

The Editors

“Your car will be ready by three this afternoon.” It is a promise, perhaps from a mechanic, but will the car really be ready on time?

For most of us, each day comes with promises. A few of them may be life-changers. Many of them will be inconsequential, or at most, mildly helpful. To identify which ones will make a real difference, it often comes down to: which of them will be kept? And that, to a great extent, depends on who made the promise in the first place. It could have been the mechanic, the neighbor, a family member. Or, perhaps it could have been someone you never met, such as a politician. Did they, and did you, either love or hate how the recent United States election turned out, especially how it impacted the promise of universal health care—or the promise of getting rid of it? After all, what some voters thought promised the best solution, others thought promised the worst.

However, go deeper on this question of promises, and what do you find? There are promises that originate with people and there are promises that originate with God. The latter set of promises has something of God’s nature about them. God is the Principle of all promise, the great Physician for all ills, the Healer that binds up all broken hearts. The promises emanating from God are promises never broken. They are promises forever kept. Consider this from the Bible, given in the Almighty’s own voice. “I am with you, and I will protect you wherever you go. … I have promised you” (Genesis 28:15, New Living Translation). We want to experience God’s promised gifts—His protection, presence, and assurance, no matter where we go. If it is God that makes the promise, and if it is God that keeps the promise, what else is called for so we more consistently see and experience the blessings, the healing proofs of His kept promises?

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