Promises

O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent?

Who shall dwell on your holy hill?
He who swears to his own hurt and does not change.
Psalm 15:1, 4

A promise must be kept, even when it turns out to cost us more than we expected. Inconvenience does not dissolve a promise made. Inconvenience makes promise-keeping all the more beautiful, even God-like.

God is a promise-maker and a promise-keeper. And our lives unfold with His beauty as we receive, believe, make and keep promises. Keeping promises will costs us. But it cost God too. His cross inspires in us to keep a promise even when it becomes painful and hard. The unforeseeable incoveniences and pains and uncertainties of the future is the very reason why we must make promises. It's why promises are valuable. In a world of uncertainties, promise-keeping is the glue that holds us together. When I make a promise, I give you word that no matter what I will stay true to what I have promised. And that is so like God.

If in the course of life we find a promise hard to keep, we cannot just think, "Hey wait a minute, this is costing me more than I bargained for. This can't be right. This puts too much stress on me. This takes too much out of me. There must be someone else to blame for this. Now, who can I dump on as my excuse to get out of this?" If we choose to make a promise, and the promise is morally legitimate - like marriage vows, joining a church, and so forth - then let's cheerfully and wholeheartedly keep our word, no matter what. It's the Christlike thing to do. It's a pathway into God's personal presence in his tent and on his holy hill as Psalm 15 puts it.

And if God feels remote and unreal in our lives, could it be because we have forsaken a promise? Maybe the way to deeper enjoyment of God is to go back and fulfill that costly promise we've been ignoring.