2 Samuel 7:18-29
David went into the tent he had set up for the sacred chest. Then he sat there and prayed:
Lord
All-Powerful, my family and I don’t deserve what you have already done
for us, and yet you have promised to do even more. Is this the way you
usually treat people? I am your servant, and you know my thoughts, so
there is nothing more that I need to say. You have done this wonderful
thing, and you have let me know about it, because you wanted to keep
your promise.
Lord All-Powerful, you are greater than all others.
No one is like you, and you alone are God. Everything we have heard
about you is true. And there is no other nation on earth like Israel,
the nation you rescued from slavery in Egypt to be your own. You became
famous by using great and wonderful miracles to force other nations and
their gods out of your land, so your people could live here. You have
chosen Israel to be your people forever, and you have become their God.
And
now, Lord God, please do what you have promised me and my descendants.
Then you will be famous forever, and everyone will say, “The Lord God
All-Powerful rules Israel, and David’s descendants are his chosen
kings.” After all, you really are Israel’s God, the Lord All-Powerful.
You’ve told me that you will let my descendants be kings. That’s why I
have the courage to pray to you like this, even though I am only your
servant.
Lord All-Powerful, you are God. You have promised me
some very good things, and you can be trusted to do what you promise.
Please bless my descendants and let them always be your chosen kings.
You have already promised, and I’m sure that you will bless my family
forever.
Scripture taken from the Contemporary English Version © 1991,1992, 1995 by American Bible Society, Used by Permission.
“Don’t
make a promise you can’t keep!” You have probably heard this adage or
some form of it. And maybe you have heard this one…”You can tell a lot
about a man by the promises he keeps – and breaks.” Both of these
quotes have their basis in Ecclesiastes 5:4-5…”God doesn’t like fools.
So don’t be slow to keep your promises to God. It’s better not to make a
promise at all than to make one and not keep it.”
I bet if you
are honest, you’ve probably forgotten a lot of promises that were made
to you and never kept. But over the course of your life, there are
probably at least one or two promises you were given that never
happened. And you remember this like it happened yesterday. I try to
be very careful about promises – especially to my little ones. They
have memories like elephants! If I promise that the next time they
visit, we will make s’mores, they remind me. If I promise Owen that I
will make him a surprise, his first question is, “What did you bring
me?” Sometimes, they add…”But you promised!” Sometimes it is implied. Either way, I feel like I let them down – if even in a small way.
See,
the trouble with “small” broken promises is that they have a way of
mushrooming into big ones. It’s sort of like “little white lies”. Once
you get comfortable telling them, you find it exponentially easier to
lie about more significant things. The next thing you know, your life
is anything but peaceful, as you struggle to remember who you told or
promised what…and you wrestle to figure out how to get out of the mess
you’ve created!
Thankfully, God never breaks a promise. So we
need look no further than His word for countless examples of promises
made…and kept. I love the verses in this passage where David tells God
that “even though I am only your servant, I have the courage to pray to
you like this,” because he knows that God has promised to hear his
prayers – and to bless him and his family. David can truly “rest in the
LORD” because He knows that God will never fail him.
Do you know
this sort of “rest”? Do you believe in the steadfastness of God’s
promises…the surety that He will never say one thing and then do
another? Are you a faithful model of this in your own life? Are you a
person of your word, or are you restless and irritable as you scramble
to “keep all of the balls – and stories – in the air” in your
relationships with others? Isn’t it time to lay aside all of the
excuses, doubts and fears – and truly operate in a restful relationship
of kept promises with God? Wouldn’t this be the perfect day to start?
You won’t regret it…I promise!
©2014 Debbie Robus
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