God of the Promise

When you get out of time out, we can have ice cream. When you finish your book report, you can play on your tablet for a little bit. When you finish mowing the yard, we can turn on the sprinkler. 

Today's promises feel more like bribes...or, at worst, like guilt speaking through our mouths. Guilt for having to be the grown-up. Guilt for having to set the boundaries. Guilt for having to enforce them. 

That's not a promise. That's a concession. 

It's a way of going back on the hard thing that you just did. It's a way of trying to mend fences. It's a way of trying to change the perspective - no, you're not the hard, evil one with high standards; you're the fun one. Remember? You're the one that's going to get ice cream. 

Because doesn't ice cream put you back in everyone's good graces?

We spend so much of our time trying to save face in our world. Trying to not come off as the bad guy. Trying not to be the person with standards in a world that doesn't have any. Always trying to show that we can do it the way the world does it, that we can be like everyone else, that we, too, are "fun" and enjoy good things.

And what comes out of that is a relationship with God where we're all just waiting for Him to buy us ice cream. To acknowledge how uncomfortable He made us. To apologize for making us do hard things. To show us that He really is good and fun and loving. 

God doesn't play that way. 

God's not trying to save face; He's trying to save souls. God's not trying to let us off the hook; He's trying to get us out of the small pond altogether. God's not trying to make us happy; He's trying to make us whole. He doesn't want us to just have fun; He wants us to enjoy our abundant life that He's promised. There's a big difference. 

That doesn't mean the hard things don't have their reward. It doesn't mean He doesn't understand the challenges that we face. It doesn't mean that He enjoys punishing us. 

It means that He always keeps His eye on what He has promised from the very beginning...even in the midst of our harder seasons. 

That's the thing - you read the Bible, and you see all these promises of God. And you see all these curses that are promises, too. Promised to come down on those who turn away, who are unfaithful, who fail at maintaining righteousness. But even when you read the curses, the promises of hard things, there are promises of good things, too. God hasn't given up on what He wants to give you. 

Unlike us, He's not trying to get back in our good graces. These aren't bribes. They aren't guilt offerings. They aren't God trying to be friends again after He's been a little harsh with us. They are the same promises He's always been making, wrapped in the consequences for not pursuing (or accepting) them. He speaks them again in the same breath He speaks our discipline because He wants us to remember that this is what He's really about - 

The hard days get us back to the good things. If only we will be faithful through them. 

In other words, God always tries to remind us there was always ice cream.

Do you remember that?