By Not Known
Promises are made every day by many people in many places and on various occasions. Couples promise to marry and stay faithfully married till death separates them. Contractors promise their clients to deliver what they have been contracted to do on time. Children promise their parents never to misbehave again. But we know all too well that many have made promises with no or weak intention to keep them. As a result, marriages are broken; business law-suits line our courts; parent-child relationships are daily being strained. Can anyone ever be trusted to do what they have promised?
It is no wonder that many people, including Christians, go about living lives with a “back-up” plan mentality ― “just in case”. We trust God to supply our needs, but we deliberately clock overtime for extra dollars. We entrust our grand plans to God as though he were our patron saint rather than our sovereign Guide. We teach our children to trust God and study hard for their examinations, but we readily permit them to skip church and quiet time. All these are indicative of our view of God that we trust him only as much as we trust ourselves.
Beyond temporal matters of life, if this is our attitude towards our eternal relationship with God, then it would be most regrettable. Might it not be that we trust God to save us as much as we are able to overcome habitual sins? Or, we trust God to save us as much as we are able to obey his commands and do good. Eternal life as the full and meaningful life that God has promised is reduced merely to his good wishes for his children. Furthermore, God’s promise to save us from the power, the penalty and the presence of sins both now and forever is only his good intention. Can God truly be trusted to deliver what he has promised? We can’t be quite sure although it is always good to have a religion, just in case…
Paul clearly teaches in Galatians 3:10-29 that Christ is powerful to save us from sins (v13) and give eternal life by the work of the Spirit (v14). Nothing can break or change God’s promise to his people in Christ (vv16-18). God has promised from the Beginning and he intends to keep it to the End. That means we can trust God for both our temporal and eternal life.
God is trustworthy and he keeps his promise. Will you also keep your promises as a child of God?
Benson Goh