{"id":749,"date":"2021-05-02T00:13:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-02T07:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/1thingmatters.com\/?p=749"},"modified":"2021-05-01T22:29:38","modified_gmt":"2021-05-02T05:29:38","slug":"help-me-see-that-god-keeps-his-promises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1thingmatters.com\/?p=749","title":{"rendered":"“Help Me See… that God Keeps His Promises”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

(Luke 24:13-35)<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most memorable movies almost always have a great ending. What makes for a great ending? While there are a lot of factors that contribute to a great ending, the one that I think stands out the most is when something completely unexpected happens. We recently had this experience in the Grand Canyon. One of the most spectacular hikes was because it was unexpected. While it was impressive to finish the first part of the hike that involved a significant descent, once we got to the first lower section, everything sort of started looking the same. It was as if the hike could have been in any number of other National Parks – it wasn\u2019t too special or unique. But then when we shot off on another trail, almost out of nowhere, an unexpected view caught us by surprise: the steep walls that had surrounded us cracked open and revealed miles of canyon upon canyon, all splitting right from where we were. It was completely unexpected and breathtaking. A good movie ending is like that, leaving the viewer completely caught off guard by a twist that didn\u2019t feel at all forced, leaving him almost speechless. We love <\/em>those kinds of endings. They\u2019re the ones that make for the most memorable movies.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So one might expect that we\u2019d also love those kinds of endings in real life, right? Wrong. A movie is one thing; our life is another. No, in life we prefer to know exactly what is happening next. We like to have control. We like to see how we\u2019ll be getting from where we are right now to where we want to be or need to be. We don\u2019t particularly care for the twists or the turns, but would rather see the road ahead of us maintain the straight trajectory that we\u2019re currently on. Keep your twists and turns, thank you very much. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem is, have you noticed by now that the twists and turns are often how God tends to keep his promises? We confuse the path of God\u2019s promises for God passing on his promises. We conclude that God is overlooking his promises when he is in fact overseeing them. A recent devotion used the picture of a detour, which is really a great illustration of how God keeps his promises. We\u2019ve driven a familiar route long enough and expect to get there a certain way. A detour throws everything off. It throws us off. It frustrates us. It leads us to conclude that God has checked out and is no longer interested in keeping his promises, when in reality the detour is <\/em>God keeping his promise. Just not using the means, methods, or map that we had in mind! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wasn\u2019t that how the disciples on the way to Emmaus were seeing things? They recounted all of the details that had happened. \u201cThe things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet powerful in action and speech before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him. But we were hoping that he was the one who was about to redeem Israel. Besides all this, it\u2019s the third day since these things happened. Moreover, some women from our group astounded us. They arrived early at the tomb, and when they didn\u2019t find his body, they came and reported that they had seen a vision of angels who said he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they didn\u2019t see him\u201d (v.19-24).<\/em><\/strong> They had just captured everything that had happened, just as it was supposed to happen – as Jesus had said it would happen – but they concluded that something was wrong. Something was out of place. Something hadn\u2019t played out the way it was supposed to. In fact, everything had played out just as it was supposed to, but they didn\u2019t see it that way. God was in fact doing just what he has always done – carrying out his promise. Yet they drew the entirely wrong conclusion – that it wasn\u2019t happening the way it was supposed to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since Jesus knew better, it doesn\u2019t surprise us to hear the response that he gives – \u201cHow foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken!\u201d (v.25). <\/em><\/strong>As if Jesus was saying, \u201cGuys, how are you missing that everything you just explained was like a movie that perfectly followed the script from beginning to end, not ad-libbing or changing things on the fly, but playing out according to the script God had revealed through his prophets from day 1? It\u2019s happening just as it was written, yet you\u2019re somehow befuddled by the reality of what it looks like. How can this be?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, how can it be that we would ever conclude that the events in our life not playing out exactly as we expected must mean God isn\u2019t keeping his promises? We can\u2019t relate to that at all, can we\u2026 except on an almost daily basis! God is busy keeping his promises to his people day in and day out, yet as we track the way by which he chooses to do it, we conclude that God must be overlooking his promises instead of overseeing them, as he actually is. Take a brief waltz through the significant events in your life and make a mental list of how they played out. Did you get through school the way you planned to? Did you find your spouse the way you planned to? Did you come by your current job the way you planned to? Are you current living where you planned to? Not too much of our lives plays out the way we planned, but our altered plans are not God\u2019s altered promises – they are rather the means by which he was carrying out his promises all along!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now it\u2019s one thing to look back and see this play out in hindsight, but it\u2019s not so easy when we\u2019re in the middle of it. It doesn\u2019t look like God is keeping his promises to provide when I\u2019m in a season of unemployment. It doesn\u2019t feel like God is keeping his promise of peace and unity in the middle of so much division. God promises that he\u2019s always with us, but that\u2019s hard to experience when those closest to me have abandoned or forgotten me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes the issue in these cases is because God has just begun the detour in keeping his promise; other times it\u2019s simply my disobedience. What I mean by disobedience is that we fail to act on the direction he provides that allows us to see him carry out his promise. He promises peace when we place our trust in him. But we don\u2019t have peace because we don\u2019t trust. He promises relief from anxiety when we cast our cares on him. But we\u2019re anxious because don\u2019t cast our cares on him. He promises freedom from bitterness and anger when we forgive. But we\u2019re bitter and angry because we refuse to forgive. So our disobedience doubles the damage – it is not only sin against God, which is wretched enough in its own right, but on top of that it is also debilitating to us! It\u2019s not that God isn\u2019t keeping his promise; it\u2019s that we rob him of the opportunity to do so by our disobedience! When God says \u201cDo this\u201d and we don\u2019t, is it reasonable for us to expect the promised blessings he attached to that act of obedience? Not really!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good news is that whether our struggle to see God keeping his promises is due to our impatience with the detour he has chosen to take, or because of our disobedience, the solution to both is found in the same place. How did Jesus help the disciples see that God was simply carrying out his promises? He explained the Scriptures to them. \u201c\u2018Wasn\u2019t it necessary for the Messiah to suffer these things and enter into his glory?\u2019 Then beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted for them the things concerning himself in all the Scriptures\u201d (v.26-27).<\/em><\/strong> Jesus, the incarnate God, the One who breathed everything into existence, who has no beginning and no end, is right there with the two disciples, and how does he open their eyes? He uses the Bible. Jesus used the Bible to unfold for the two exactly how God was overseeing – not overlooking – his promises. Jesus\u2019 go-to was the Word of God. And that in-depth search of the Scriptures pointed them more clearly to Jesus. The Word was how they saw God keeping his promises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So detour or disobedience – it doesn\u2019t matter; the Word will always help us see that God keeps his promises. It will always be the necessary first step in reminding us of this because it is always the first step in finding forgiveness. Why do we begin every service with confession and absolution? Because that comes from the Word, where alone and more than anything else we find the forgiveness we need. Oh, the day we stop sinning we won\u2019t need to hear that assurance of forgiveness again\u2026 but I don\u2019t see that happening anytime soon. So forgiveness is the first aid we need most for our disobedience and our doubts about God keeping his promises. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it is the same Word that records for us promise after promise that God has made and delivered. Hang on to this worship folder just for the Lessons, if nothing else. Keep it accessible so that when you next question God\u2019s promise-keeping, you can go back to these Scriptures and be reminded that the issue is NEVER going to be one of God\u2019s failed promises. That will never happen. But we need to be reminded of that truth again and again. We need to hear the refrain in our heads. We need to meditate in our minds over they myriad ways God has always kept his promises. Promise-keeping is what he does. He\u2019s the best in the business – no one else even comes close to delivering on promises the way God does! His Word is his diary of kept promises for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And is there greater proof of those kept promises than the vacant tomb? Talk about unexpected twists and great endings! It appeared as if the credits were ready to roll when he breathed his last on Good Friday, but in the greatest ending ever, he didn\u2019t stay dead! Let Jesus\u2019 resurrection help us see that God keeps his promises. And let it help us see that it really isn\u2019t the end of the story, but our lives are a continuation of God\u2019s perfect promise-keeping record. We hold on to that until this chapter of the story concludes and the final twist takes place: Jesus returns and fulfill his final promise. Come, Lord Jesus! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Luke 24:13-35) The most memorable movies almost always have a great ending. What makes for a great ending? While there are a lot of factors that contribute to a great ending, the one that I think stands out the most is when something completely unexpected happens. We recently had this experience in the Grand Canyon.… Continue reading “Help Me See… that God Keeps His Promises”<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[118,65],"tags":[119,5,109,127,120,36,108],"class_list":["post-749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-help-me-see","category-sermons","tag-easter","tag-jesus","tag-preaching","tag-promise","tag-resurrection","tag-sermon","tag-teaching"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p842FN-c5","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1thingmatters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1thingmatters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1thingmatters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1thingmatters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1thingmatters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=749"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/1thingmatters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":750,"href":"https:\/\/1thingmatters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749\/revisions\/750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1thingmatters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1thingmatters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1thingmatters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}