An Anglican Compendium of Thoughts and Prayers: The Cheque's in the Post

The cheque’s in the post. Hmmm…one of the most common ‘little’ promises that gets broken every day.

Keeping promises can often be difficult and there are times when those who make promises are actually not equipped to keep them, or actually never intended to keep them in the first place! Just ask any church treasurer or charity group and you’ll hear both sad and amusing stories of when it comes time to fulfil those ‘promises,’ how people suddenly disappear. A Rabbi friend of mine once told me his Synagogue was built with a budget of a half a million pounds in pledges and £29.95 in cash.

The floods of divorces and the torrents of lawsuits that plague our society are eloquent testimony to the fragility of promises and the unlikelihood of many of them ever being kept. The images of homeless, abandoned and starving children serve as a powerful testimony of how ‘promises’ disappear.

When it affects us directly it can render us cynical and disinclined to trust anyone, perhaps even God. It can certainly remind us of old man Simeon. He waited all his life for Jesus’ coming, and he never ceased in trusting that God would be faithful to His promise of a Redeemer. And when our Saviour came, in the arms of His parents, for consecration to the Lord as the Law prescribed, Simeon gave thanks, saying ‘Now, Lord, you can dismiss your servant in peace; You have fulfilled Your word…’

God is absolutely faithful in His love of every one of us. Even when we turn away and do not walk with Him, God does not turn from us. He waits and waits and waits.

Trust that. He is waiting for you now, hoping that you will give His love for you an opening. If you do, He will show Himself to you in His own way and in His own time, and He will give you what you need to walk with Him faithfully.

His promise will always be kept!

Lord, You have revealed yourself fully in Christ our Lord. May we learn to walk in His ways, and always remember His promise to be with us, forever. Amen