Full Promises

We should stop making promises we can’t fulfill! This ends up forming our belief system of promises and promise-makers.

I’ve come to realize that the more a man, a friend, a spouse, a parent, makes a promise that they never fulfill, the more the promisee loses faith in the context of the word.

If someone has continuously been ill-treated since birth, beaten, kicked, punished, flogged, despised, spat at … they might grow up having no idea what true love is. Even if someone genuinely tries to love them, they might instead reinforce the walls around their construct and themselves. Reason? — The incomprehension of this foreign thing …

I can use an example of fathers. It is so hard for boys who grew up with either cruel step fathers, seasonal fathers, or absent fathers. When God is presented as a father, their minds suggest He is not far from the type of father they have experienced.

Same goes for promises! I have grown to a point where I only believe you when you fulfill your promise. The first time you say it — I will feel nothing. Blame it on the many scars I have received from many people — christians included! A pastor promised a payment for an architectural design. He paid two-fifths, and one year down the road, he still has never picked up my phone calls, or returned my texts.

This should come as a warning therefore! To all brethren. Having realized how far these empty promises’ effects can go, I am more frightened. The Holy Spirit I have prayed — to help me in this area. And it begins with obediences to which there is no external accountability.

If we say we shall be there by 3pm, no one is going to scold us for not making it on time. We would have thrown all that school timekeeping training out the window however, and only those who are fond of the Holy Spirit’s voice can incline to hear His conviction, lest they grieve Him.

If you can’t keep your word, even the Bible says Heaven won’t trust you! That speaks of your character. If you can’t be faithful in things as small as keeping your word, the Bible exclaims: who shall entrust you with the true riches! If you promised your child, your parent, your spouse, your boss this and that, and you fail without apology, Heaven benchmarks on that to determine your growth in ranks; ranks of anointing, of increase in wealth, and even promotion in any office!

Having mentioned one remedy to the promisers, I have one for when we are in the position of the promisee: for we too can become hard, if our hearts fail. Our construct of this whole promise thing can get so damaged that even when God — the GOD that has no ounce of ability to lie — says something to us, we will immediately perceive it through the now-default interpretation of ‘promise’: claiming that He’s lying!

God! . . . Lying?

What an abomination! I even feel blasphemous combining the two nouns in one sentence!

But, yes — the remedy, as I was saying, is letting God define your ‘promise’. The Bible says He is not a man that He should lie, nor a son of man that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?

Elsewhere it says let God be true and every man a liar. Through Isaiah, He said, His word would not return void to Him. Did He promise Isaac and did He not deliver!

Now! We must separate God and His integrity, from the people around us and their dishonesty. Our mentality of trust towards Him must be concrete set, and immutable. Delay doesn’t mean deceit! Better delay than man’s early dates, which pass long without their promises’ fulfilling; and not feeling any remorse about it altogether their promisers.

Understanding God’s character; from His word and His history — settling that His promises are always FULL — will deter earthly corruption from influencing our belief to think that He is capable of failing.

That will not only stop there but influence us, to be like Him. To stop lying. To strive and be better — holy like Him …

It will influence others; to see how trustworthy we can be. And touch them, convict them, make them to change, to stop making empty promises; and slowly undo this type of cancer from them. It will do this in a way that they will separate you from the liars, just like you separated God. And they’ll categorize you as one who can be trusted.

Soon they will say, ‘I want to be like you’ and just like he that walks with the wise is wise, he that walks with the trusted will become of same kin.

Understanding how promises impact our belief systems and relationships both vertically and horizontally makes me understand why the psalmist requested God to put a muzzle over his lips. Because if we are a royal priesthood — kings or queens, and we say words that we don’t keep, we farther defy the law of the Word!

Ecclesiastes says ‘where the word of the king is, there is power.’ But if we can’t keep a promise spoken, we are meaning to say the word of the king has no power; meaning the Bible is a lie; meaning the enemy himself can whisper to us that since there is no power, how can the King of Kings’ word bear any! See how the ignorant ones can be brought to convincing!

It is one gigantic subtle loop.

One might think only the valves in one blood vessel are not functioning, until the blood back flows. Then the channel shuts. Then the liver can’t receive blood after some time, then the kidneys neither, then the lungs, yet the heart is still pumping, but the fresh blood meets the blockade and causes some sort of traffic jam. Then an artery either bursts due to high pressure, or clots form. Internal bleeding ensues. Stroke if in the brain. A person collapses. If rushed to hospital well and good. If not …

(Sigh)

One . . . small . . . thing, is all it takes.

So let us not allow it to. Let us keep our promises. Let us not swear and rather say no, than yielding to pressure.

And may you help us Holy Spirit, on this journey; and continue teaching us these underlying truths. These that expose why we are stuck in some areas of our lives. These that show us why we grieve you. These that show us how we limit your power. And may you keep us from falling into the same trap, or back to where we left. We trust your ability to as we genuinely submit to you, again and again, over again. Daily. That men will eventually see you in us.