Do I trust the promises of God?

How can I be sure that God will do what he promises? When Luke 12 tells me not to worry about food, clothes, what to wear, opposition, and even death, how can I not worry? Well the chapter exhorts us not to worry because of the character of the God we serve.

Because the disciple lives in relationship with the God who always keeps his promises, his or her Father is a faithful God. Just think for a minute about all the promises God makes in the Bible. If God was going to break one of them I think the one to break would be Genesis 2:17; as God puts Adam and Eve in the Garden he warns them not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the middle and promises “for when you eat of it you will surely die.”

Have you ever thought about the cost to God of keeping that promise? The keeping of that promise sees the ruin the perfect creation; it brings death into the world, not just physical death but spiritual death as a result of their rejection of God’s rule. Yet when Adam and Eve eat the fruit God keeps his promise and keeps on keeping his promise. He keeps his promise at such cost to himself that it sees his son take flesh, it sees Jesus pray in garden “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me…” and yet willingly go to the cross where he takes on himself the curse of corruption and death promised in Genesis 2.

So can I trust God to keep his promises to me? The living God does not lie and so God the Son gave himself at the cross, what more proof do I need that I can trust God? If God keeps that promise at that cost to himself then when God says he knows what I need, that he will give us what we need, he will do so.

The disciple’s decision is to live in the light of the God they have been brought to know in Jesus. It is a decision not to worry but to seek God’s kingdom. I need reminding of that as we plant a new church and face the unknowns. I am, we as a church are to seek a kingdom with different values and priorities; not to consumed with possession or worries about wealth or anything else but to be concerned with delighting God. To be in the kingdom is to be under the rule and reign of God, to seek the kingdom is to look to put that rule and reign into action.