A Promise We Can Bank On

The very first job Scott did when we began our business was for a friend and her husband. Scott hired a few laborers, purchased the materials, and the job began. The afternoon the job was completed, the couple gave Scott a check and told him how pleased they were with the work. Until they weren't. Monday morning, I had just mailed our laborers their wages and a cheerful little "thank you" to our first customers when my phone rang. They'd stopped payment on the check. I was stunned. Neither of us could fathom what had happened in forty-eight hours. More than a week later we got a very strange but definitive answer: they'd changed their minds about the materials they'd originally chosen. In that time, we'd been compelled to hire an attorney, watch helplessly as checks bounced, and apologize profusely as our word was called into question. One tiny piece of paper --once a promise, now rendered worthless-- caused so much aggravation. Not to mention ended a friendship.

In Genesis, God makes some promises to Abram. He promises blessing upon blessing: land, a multitude of descendants, a reputation and legacy. The thing we need to notice is, Abram had nothing on which to base his belief --at least, nothing of which we are told. Abram was simply doing his thing one day when God begins to speak. And Abram believes! Also, Abram's circumstances don't really affirm the possibility of these things coming to be. Abram is old --seventy-five!-- and his wife is well past child-bearing age. What is the likelihood of having one child, much less many descendants? Then, he gets to Canaan, and God tells him, "This is where your descendants will live." Descendants? But, Abram builds an altar to God and accepts His promise as though it would happen. A little while later, Abram and his nephew, Lot, have a dispute over land and Lot chooses the nicest portion. Does Abram panic? Does he tell his nephew, "Look here, Pal! God promised me land, and He certainly didn't promise me the wasteland you've left me. Find somewhere else to go." Nope, he pitched his tent and worshipped, trusting God to make good on all He promised. On and on it goes, Abram believing God's promise despite the way things appeared. In fact, from the time God made the first recorded promise to Abram (whom He later called Abraham, "father of many") until the promised son was born, twenty-five years had passed! It would be centuries before those descendants actually inhabited the promised land. But, Abraham's reputation of faith lives on and encourages us even today.

How much more should we walk in faith? How much more can we trust the promises of a God who has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness? How much more should we live in obedience to One who has proven Himself faithful time and time again? How much more should we focus on the promises of God who controls the circumstances, and not focus on the circumstances themselves? 

The check Scott held in his hand was a promise: the money existed, the money would be handed over. Abram's child did not exist and yet, he believed. The checks I wrote, standing on a promise, were considered by all to be "as good as cash." Abraham's body, Paul tells us, was as good as dead. We acted in faith, trusting the promises of men, as did those who trusted the promises we made. Abraham acted in faith, trusting God Almighty. Everything in our situation appeared to be okay, until it wasn't. With Abraham, nothing appeared to be okay, until it was!