Pinky Promise or God's Promises

Yesterday I wrote about feeling discouraged and wanting to quit. We’ve all been there if we’re honest.

Sometimes it seems like I work so hard doing all the “right” things and never seem to get anywhere.

The truth, however, is that a lot of times these works are things that I just come up to do. It hurts to take a good hard look, but everything we do that seems “right” isn’t always of God. Sometimes it’s just busy work.

In other cases, God does tell people exactly what to do. He also makes exact promises. Consider Abraham and Sarah. God gave them some tasks to accomplish. He also made them promises. 

I don’t know about you, but I expect people to keep their promises. I even wrote yesterday about God keeping His promise and not forgetting. If someone promises something, I expect them to follow through.

For example, let’s pretend I teach in a public school and my students take a government mandated standardized test. Let’s say that the government officials in charge of state education make the decision that teachers who hold degrees in administration who increase their standardized test scores by 5% each year for five consecutive years will be promoted to an administrative position. I work my tail off and manage to meet that bar for each of the five years. The first day of my sixth year when I expect to be moved to a position of administration, a government vehicle pulls up to our building, a straight-faced black suit robot strides into the office with a message deliver. All advancements have been postponed. All successful teachers shall remain in their respective classrooms.

Wow.

So close that I could see, taste, smell, almost feel the promise come true.

The task had been laid out. The work had been done. The reward had been within sight, but was never attained.

If this scenario were real, if this actually happened to me in my professional life, I would be devastated. I would feel cheated. What about you? Could you accept an unfulfilled promise?

Let’s consider Abraham and Sarah.

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them. Hebrews 11:13-16

They died without receiving the promises, and yet they were assured of them and embraced them. They were totally ok with not receiving the promises here on earth, even though they could see them, because they knew they didn’t belong here.

Their desire was for a better country. A country where all of their promises and so many more would be fulfilled.

Their faithfulness despite their unrealized reward on earth resulted in God not being ashamed to be called their God!

I wonder if God is ashamed to be called my God sometimes. I wonder if He drops His face into His palms on those days when my faith falters and my fear creeps in.

He wasn’t ashamed of Abraham and Sarah. He prepared a city for them.

That promise wasn’t only for Abraham and Sarah, friends. God won’t forget what we have done. We must have faith and continue the work He has set out for us to do. Even, no especially, when it seems like we’re getting nowhere.

You see, it may seem like you’re getting nowhere here on earth, but while doing God’s will may lead nowhere here on earth, it leads to Heaven at home with God for all eternity.

I’d rather have my rewards in eternity than now. Wouldn’t you?

photo credit: SalFalkohttp://www.flickr.com/photos/safari_vacation/7496765660/">SalFalko
> via photopinhttp://photopin.com">photopin> cchttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/">cc>