What is a Promise?

I thought I'd spend some posts writing on promises of God that we misunderstand.

That's right.

You may think that I'm awfully uppity to say that.  To think that we are handling God's promises wrongly.  But I am saying that, and I do think that. 

We choose to take God's promises at face value, and we don't really look at them.  We don't read them in context.  We take out of each promise what makes us feel good and then we disregard the rest

For example . . .

Jeremiah 29:11.  Everyone knows this verse, and it's written on almost every graduation card and gift at the Christian bookstore!  "For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." 

Most people assume that verse means God wants them to be happy.  That he has a successful career planned for them.  A career with money and power.  A marriage.  Children.  A two-car garage in a newer model home.

Ummm, no.  Not so.  Read the verse in its context:  This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”

The Hebrews had been in exile.  They had disobeyed God, and He punished them.  The real promise of this passage is that God's great love for us never ends, but His discipline does.  He may punish us for a season, but he will be there when it is completed.

Notice also that God's promises often come with an expectation of us:  you will seek me and find me WHEN you seek me with all your heart.  All we have to do is come to him with our everything.   When we do, he does the rest of the work.  Look at the words in his promise:  Prosper.  Hope.  Listen.  Gather.  All the things that HE does for US.

Notice also that this verse does not say God will give us whatever we want.  It does not say he will make us happy.  He will give us hope, and that hope is in the knowledge that he has planned our future, he is in our future, he IS our future.  

Please don't make the mistake of believing this promise at face value.  Read it completely.  Understand it in context.  Remember that, as Nancy Leigh DeMoss says, it's not our happiness he's concerned with.  It's our holiness.

Another verse later in the week!