According to His Promise

A God who is always faithful.

A few years ago, I had a nail in my tire. It was in a spot that the professional tire companies wouldn’t fix, so I would, according to them, have to buy a new one. The problem was, this was a tire I had purchased only six months before—it was brand new. So, I did a little research and found a local shop that still did tire plugs (which meant they could fix it without me getting a new one). I drove to the shop, and within 30 minutes, they had me ready to go.

However, this was a country shop. They didn’t take Apple Pay, and I conveniently did not have my wallet with all my cards. Of course, I didn’t have cash because who carries cash (this is sarcastic; I know some of you still carry cash)?! When they brought the car around to me, they said it was only $10 for the plug—pretty reasonable for what would have been a $150 new tire at the other place. I explained the situation, and they said, “You can just bring us the $10 tomorrow!” They put a lot of trust in me, and I promised to bring the money tomorrow.

Two months later, it hit me that I never took that money—I completely forgot about it after I got home and never looked back.

Has this ever happened to you? Not the nail in the tire and forgetting to take the money to the country shop that charged you $10, but making a promise that you didn’t come through on because you either forgot or no longer had the means to fulfill it.

Unfortunately, this has happened to all of us. Maybe this is why Jesus says, in Matthew 5:34, “…I say to you, Do not swear at all…” Most of us have no ill will in failing to fulfill our promises; life happens, and our word gets left under the pile of other responsibilities that we carry.

French Enlightenment writer Voltaire once said, “In the beginning, God created man in His own image, and man has been trying to repay the favor ever since.” Though he had many criticisms of the church, he is correct. We constantly try to create a God in our image. Yet, sometimes, this is more subtle in our foundational philosophies of life and God. We project our tendencies and letdowns onto our expectations of God.

In the case of promises kept, because we are mediocre at being faithful to our word, we expect God to be, too. We cherish journals full of promises we felt the still-small-voice deliver in moments of vulnerability and praise. We remember those not-so-coincidental encounters with people in our lives as if the Lord was speaking to us. Then, time happens. Years later, without a sign that God is working out what he said, we wonder, “Did God forget?” “Did I hear correctly?” “Does God care about this little word when he is in charge of the entirety of the cosmos?”

The Christmas story can offer us some insight and hope.

Hundreds of years exist between the Old Testament’s last page and the New Testament’s first page. God, throughout the Old Testament from the time of Abraham through the Exodus and in the Prophets, major and minor, promised to put things right again in the world. This wouldn’t just be for his people, Israel; it would be for his people, the human race. But how do you hold to such hope when there have been centuries and many generations between the last time you heard directly from God and the present moment?

This is the setting of the Christmas story. God’s people were living in a world that felt forgotten by its Creator. Yet, they weren’t holding to a wish that God would fix the chaos around them; they were holding to hope that God would do what God said he would do. There’s a difference between wishing and hoping. Wishing regards what might happen, but it is a little far-fetched. I wish I had a Ford Bronco (if anyone is looking for a Christmas gift). Hoping regards what will happen in the future. I hope my daughter is happy with what we get her for Christmas. The promised Messiah wasn’t a wish; it was a hope. God will send a Savior, and he will redeem what has been lost.

Nevertheless, the crux remains that time might heal all wounds and create wounds. In the ultimate story, these wounds are not honest (as God always comes through on his word), but they feel honest in the time before fulfillment. They hurt.

Odds are, you are in the middle of this waiting period right now, in some form. You might be waiting for something small, such as a work bonus (Christmas Vacation), or you might be waiting for something “Monumental” like a house with so many Christmas lights it can be seen from space (Deck the Halls). Either way, you can be assured that the one responsible for his word—God—is always faithful.

Not one of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.

Joshua 21:45

After Mary was told she would give birth to the “Son of the Most High,”¹ she went on a journey to visit Elizabeth, who was also pregnant with a miracle child—given that she was previously barren and now past the age of childbearing. When Mary entered the home of Zechariah and Elizabeth, the baby in Elizabeth’s womb leaped (who would be John the Baptizer).

Following a cry of blessing from Elizabeth to Mary, Mary gives a hymn of praise to the Lord that “echoes Hannah’s song over Samuel in 1 Samuel 2:1-10.” It is also “similar to other biblical prayers found in places like Psalms 34:1-3; 103:17; Habakkuk 3:18; and Sirach 10:14 [in the Apocrypha].”² Usually referred to as Magnificat, Latin for “My soul magnifies the Lord,” it ends with,

“He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and his descendants forever.”³

You may need to read the entirety of the Magnificat to feel the full effect of this ending. Regardless, the weight of what Mary declares is tangible. God, in this little unexpected baby in the womb of a teenager, has remembered what he promised so long ago. Israel had royally messed up countlessly, yet nothing they did could change the fact that God would fulfill his promises based on the trustworthiness of his word alone.

“To his descendants forever” includes you and me. In Galatians 3:29, Paul states, “If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.” The Incarnation wasn’t just the culmination of the Old Testament; it was the start of redemption. God becoming human, in the Son, only fulfills his promises in the past to return to us what we lost so long ago: life to the full—God-life. He fills the empty cup with living water so we can drink it forever.

Whatever you are hoping for this Christmas, allow the most important moment in the universe’s history (the Incarnation—Christmas) to remind you that God remembers.

So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit.

Galatians 6:9 MSG

Don’t give up hope. Allow time to grow your anticipation that you will soon hold what you have heard and dreamt of. The moments before Gabriel announced the Messiah was both the furthest away Israel was from God’s promises AND the closest they were to their fulfillment. Don’t look back. Look ahead and know that every word from God’s mouth accomplishes what it is supposed to accomplish and achieves the purposes for which it was sent.⁴

1. Luke 1:32 NRSV

2. NRSV; The Harper Collins Study Bible; Including Apocryphal Deuterocanonical Books; Student Edition, (San Francisco: California, 2006), 1763 footnotes.

3. Luke 1:54-55 NRSV

4. Isaiah 55:11