He Keeps His Promises (episode 48)

0:00 Today you will know this is true. God keeps his promises. Welcome back to When You Love a Prodigal. I hope you appreciated our November and December episodes on gratitude and Advent and Christmas, and then entering the new year with some lessons that I have learned that I hope will be encouraging and helpful to you. My Prodigal wilderness journey was long. My friends encouraged me and prayed for me, but they had families of their own. My co-workers listened to my stories, but didn't really identify.

0:42 My husband was so helpful and supportive, but he was busy and gone a lot. The Prodigal wilderness was often lonely, and I felt alone and overwhelmed and stressed. These are the feelings I often encountered. Probably you have also felt alone on your journey with your loved one. Others pray, encourage, share our burdens, but still we feel the weight weighing on us. Amazingly, our God offers to carry it all with us and for us.

1:23 He says, you're not alone. I am with you. In both the Old and New Testaments, we discover that God has revealed names for himself, that promise that he will always be with us. God, who we know is the most high and almighty God, makes this remarkable choice. He dwells with his people, first in the tabernacle and then in the temple. In Ezekiel's vision of the New Jerusalem, we see a new name for the city, Jehovah Shema.

2:03 The name of the city from that time on will be, the Lord is there. There was this assurance that God was always there, whether it was in a tabernacle or in the temple, he would be there and they knew they could go and he would be there. In the past and in the future, we can know that we are not alone because God's very name assures us that he is with us by his own choice. Then we go to the New Testament and it gets better. In Isaiah, we see another name for God's presence with us.

2:46 Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. The Virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and will call him Emmanuel. We are told by Matthew that this prophecy is fulfilled in Jesus. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet, that the Virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and they will call him Emmanuel, which means God with us. This is what the incarnation is all about. God became human so that he could be with us in the flesh.

3:29 But this presence of our God with us is so much more in Jesus. He is not just with us, he actually comes through his spirit to live in us. He doesn't just dwell with us. We're not just in the same house. He indwells us. He lives in us through his spirit. Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's spirit dwells in you? First Corinthians. Even as God dwells with the children of Israel in a temple, now we have actually become the temple of the indwelling God.

4:15 So though our wilderness journey with our prodigals may take us through dark nights, on rough paths, into scary situations, and beyond our capacity to endure, God is with us every step of the way. He hears our cries. He comforts our hearts. He strengthens our resolve. He fills us to overflowing with his love and grace. We have this promise. God has said, never will I leave you. Never will I forsake you. Promises. We all make promises.

4:58 Big ones. My husband and I certainly did when we got married 46 years ago. We've kept them. Not everyone does. Another promise I made was to follow God's path for my life, and not my lifelong tendency to demand my own way. Keeping that promise most of the time. So many lesser promises to go somewhere with somebody or to get an article done on a due date or to return a call. Not always do I do those. Or the promises I make to myself about eating right, exercising, keeping order at my home.

5:41 Not so good at those. And then there are the promises made by my prodigal. It took a while, but I eventually learned that when an addict is talking, it is usually a lie. They're going to say whatever they think they need to say to make you get off their back or give you what they want. Where he told us he was going, often, had no connection to where he was really going. We have just looked at several names of God and the promises that they embody. We know that he sees and he hears that he is our shepherd.

6:22 He is our peace. He is with us. He is even a banner of victory for us. But perhaps we find ourselves asking, really, do these promises come true? Can I believe these promises? I haven't seen any of my loved ones promises happening. Can I trust that God's will? Can we believe that God's names are promises? That he will be faithful to who he is as defined by his names. Undeniably so. His word says so. I shared this passage in Psalm 145 with you when we talked about rest in an earlier episode.

7:07 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and your dominion endures through all generations. The Lord is trustworthy in all he promises and faithful in all he does. In the episodes on rest, we looked at eight scriptures affirming the evidence of God's faithfulness. Even when we are confronted with the unfaithfulness of the children of Israel, of his followers through history, and even of you and me, we often are unfaithful. We are not keeping our promises. I know I am grateful that God extends mercy and grace when I deserve judgment.

7:52 Over and over, he is there, always trustworthy, always faithful. Here are some more assurances of God's unfailing faithfulness. David in Psalm 26, I have always been mindful of your unfailing love and have lived in reliance on your faithfulness. Wow. Psalm 57 says, for great is your love, Lord, reaching to the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches to the skies. And in Psalm 86, but you, Lord, are compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.

8:43 It is that same faithfulness that makes another characteristic of God unavoidable. He keeps his promise. His word is filled with hundreds of promises because there are hundreds of names of God. And each one is a promise that he will be true to. He is good for every one of them, even the ones that don't yet seem fulfilled to us. Rejoice in these good words. God is not human that he should lie, not a human being that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?

9:28 Joshua says, not one of all God's good promises to Israel failed. Every one was fulfilled. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so is my word that goes out from my mouth. It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. Oh, what promises our God has made to us. And you know what he says? All of them are yes in Jesus.

10:11 Forgiveness, a relationship with himself, abundant life, eternal life, peace, comfort, hope. And one more thought that I love. He hears and answers prayer. The righteous cry out and the Lord hears them and he delivers them from all their troubles. A favorite story of mine is Daniel, who had called on the Lord with many questions. When the answer finally arrived sometime later, delivered by an angel, I love the angels' greetings. As soon as you began to pray, Daniel, a word went out, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed.

10:56 Do not be afraid, Daniel, since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard and I have come in response to them. Sometimes the answers are not clear to us. Sometimes the timing is not what we had in mind. Sometimes it seems like we wait forever. Sometimes he answers in different and surprising ways. But know this, we can trust our God to keep his promises. Paul tells us why, if we are faithless, he remains faithful for he cannot deny himself.

11:45 May you know that God has heard your prayers and his answers will be right and at the right time. He is a faithful promise keeper. So think back a little bit over all the names of God that we've talked to over the past several weeks. Which one has been most meaningful to you? Perhaps the shepherd's psalm and that he's taking care of you. Perhaps that he sees and he knows what's going on in your life, that he hears your prayers, that he will give you victory in this hard battle that you're fighting or the assurance that he's with you.

12:29 Some other name of God that has been helpful to you. And when have you seen God keep the promises in his names? When could you think of an answer to prayer that God clearly was keeping his promise? Next week, we will wrap up our look at prayer. And then for the two weeks after that, we will be having two wonderful conversations with special guests you won't want to miss.