Promises of God

Steadfast Love and the Prodigal Son

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The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is Your faithfulness! Lamentations 3:22-23 ESV

  • God’s love never ceases: It has never changed in the past and will never change in the future. God doesn’t love us more when we succeed or do a good deed, and He doesn’t love us less when we fail, or fall into sin. We come home to God by believing He is loving and willing to accept us. God’s love is like the father’s love in the parable of the prodigal son. Just like that Father, God is still willing to accept us and include us into His family, when we leave our own way of doing things and come home to him.
  • God’s mercies never come to an end: When God forgives us, He adopts us into His family. He isn’t just being kind to us on a one-time basis. He will not wake up tomorrow and say, “Okay that’s it. The visit is over. Pack your bags and move out!” When God receives us into His family He says, “This my son, was dead, but now he is alive!” You see, even when the prodigal was spiritually dead to his father, he was still considered a son. Now he has come home, that dead relationship became a living one. Our living relationship to God begins by our believing in our Father’s mercy because of the cross of Jesus. The blood of Jesus has paid the penalty of our sins forever and we don’t have to be afraid that God will ever change His mind.
  • Great is Your Faithfulness: We learn to be faithful to others, by seeing how faithful God has been to us. The prodigal came home thinking that he was going to work for his dad and live in the servant’s quarters. But his father had a different plan. He was given a welcome home party and then invited to come live back home. In that same way, we don’t work for God all week while living in the servant’s quarters and then go visit our dad once a week at His place on Sunday. Just like the father in the parable, God’s plan is for us to wake up every morning in His house, come down to breakfast at His table and spend our day, every day with Him! What an amazing, loving and faithful God we serve!

God’s Promises in a Covid World

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Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” Matthew 2:19 ESV

Somedays we may wonder if and when we will ever emerge from the Covid-19 world. Some may be looking forward with the hope that Christmas will not be cancelled again. The rest of us are just longing for the good old days when a world-wide epidemic was simply the subject of science fiction. But the reality is that forces were trying to cancel God’s promises and destroy Christmas long before King Herod’s murderous plot and the wise men’s journey to Bethlehem.

As the sweet baby Jesus lay in the manger surrounded by shepherds, Joseph and Mary knew little of the dangers that lay ahead. They went to sleep that night trusting God just as they had always done. Then while they slept God sent His angel to warn them and direct them on their journey to safety.

So, as we face our dangers spelled out by daily new case counts, death rates and fears, remember that God also has a plan for us. Just as He kept Christmas alive in spite of Herod’s plans, so He will keep both Christmas and his plan for you and me alive no matter what comes. Even if our malls and restaurants close again or if we are unable to light candles together at church on Christmas Eve, God will keep His promise alive in our hearts forever if we will only trust in Him!