PROMISES

Genesis 15: 17 – 22


We make promises that we don't keep all the time. It doesn't matter why, I mean we can forget about the promise, we can be distracted, we can even intentionally break a promise out of anger or spite.
The point is we are human, which means that we are imperfect we mess up and we will eventually disappoint people around us and people that we love.
In our old age, we have learned that these things go on and we also realize that the old saying about our tongues writing checks that our bodies can't cash gets more true with every passing day. As we grow old, we are able to do less than we were able to as when we were younger people.
Our arms aren't as strong and our legs aren't as swift but there are times when God uses us to do mighty things. Billy Graham, while advanced in years, still brings the good news of God to people around the world. Abraham, being 100 years old was told by God that he was going to be the father of a great nation through his 90 year old wife Sarah. Both Abraham and Sarah laughed at the prospect of having a child a their age.
(At 55 if someone told me that I was going to be a father, well I'd have to laugh at them unless that someone was God)
But, God had made a promise, and He always keeps His promises.

15 ¶ God also said to Abraham, "As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah.
16 I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her."
17 Abraham fell face down; he laughed and said to himself, "Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?"
19 Then God said, "Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.
21 But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year."
22 When he had finished speaking with Abraham, God went up from him.

God made a promise, and even gave a time line as to when His promise would be fulfilled. And, as we have learned in the past, God always keeps His word. We may not like the promises that He makes, and we may even laugh at them, but, they are kept, in His time not ours.
Even when we are old or infirm, or even if we are young, we can still make a difference to many people if we listen to the promises of God, and we carry out what He wants us to do.