Promises, Promises, Promises – 16 November 2009

As a bit of a 50’s throwback I have just recalled a somewhat unknown song, the lyrics are, “Promises, Promises, Promises, that’s all I get from you, I can’t believe your promises, they never do come true!”  Well, unlike the words of this song I feel God has put it on my heart to share with you some of his promises, and to assure you that HIS promises do, indeed, come true.

We are all fellow travellers on our own personal journeys with the Lord, this year for me has been “The Year of the Lord’s Favour” (Isaiah 61) where long awaited promises come true.  This week all verses from scripture I use are promises I have hung on to, believed in and refused to let go of and for me, this year, they have indeed come true.

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed and qualified me to preach the Gospel of good tidings to the meek, the poor, and afflicted; He has sent me to bind up and heal the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty (physical and spiritual) to the captives and the opening of the prison and of the eyes to those who are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord (the year of His favour) and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn .......  

Isaiah 61 v 1-2, [Amplified Bible]

Jesus promises to mend our broken hearts.  There are many ways a heart can break – death, divorce, rejection, illness, abuse, sin, injustice, failure – the list goes on and on.  Everyone will experience a broken heart at some time and some may never fully recover.  Binding up the broken-hearted is part of being a Christian, yet so often I feel uncomfortable when faced with someone’s tragedy.  I want to comfort them, but don’t really know how.  I’ve walked through some very difficult and painful situations in the past and I’m so grateful for the grace of God – and for the people of God, when I didn’t think I could make it, the Lord used men and women with wisdom and maturity to pour His resurrection life back into my heart, many of you reading this have encouraged me on my journey, thank you.

Each one of us has experienced God’s amazing grace and the thing that makes it so amazing is that it’s so radical!  Not one of us has earned or deserved the mercy we’ve received, yet we often find it hard to love each other when we see weakness or sin, we can be so inconsistent.  When I sin, I beg for (and expect) God’s mercy, but when someone else sins, my thoughts can often race towards swift judgement. James 2:12-13 warns, “So speak and so act as [people should] who are to be judged under the law of liberty [the moral instruction given by Christ, especially about love].  For to him who has shown no mercy the judgement [will be] merciless, but mercy [full of glad confidence] exults victoriously over judgement.”

The enemy is the “accuser of the brethren” and when someone falls, he’s right there to assure them that God is finished with them! That's why we need to speak encouragement and hope into their lives – telling them they can make it, one step at a time, that we believe in them and that God is not finished with them.  I read a wonderful line in a recent devotional “Fewer people die of a swollen head than a broken heart!”

God always has redemptive purposes – even when sin is involved, remember Moses and David, most of us would have written these guys off immediately but as these men saw their sin and repented, God worked with them and loved them right on to fruitful lives as His chosen leaders.  God promises us mercy and healing for our broken heart.

Lord, receive the sacrifice of a broken heart.