The Certainty of God’s Promise

Written by Heather Broughman

_{For those of us that are holding onto God’s promises, I pray that your hope is stirred today! And that in reading this you would be filled with fresh AWE + WONDER over the heart of God for His people, including me and YOU!!! (This is an excerpt from my book of a chapter titled, “Hope Against Hope.”)}

I can only imagine how foolish Abraham must have felt in his old age still carrying around this promise from the Lord that he would be the father of Nations . Although he had an illegitimate child named Ishmael, his wife Sarah had not yet borne him a child. I wonder if throughout the years he, like so many of us, had shared with his friends and family about the promises that the Lord had made him. Had he told all of them that the Lord was going to make him a father of Nations? Can you imagine what his friends and family must have thought or even said year after year as Sara got older and older. 

If he had given in to the temptation to just believe what his circumstances and maybe even some of his friends and family were telling him, he would have given up. Because in the natural, the impossibility for him and Sarah to have a child of their own increased with every year that passed. But here’s the most important part of the story, even after his and Sarah’s attempt at making the promise happen in their own strength and making a mess of things, and beyond what their physical circumstances might say, Abraham didn’t give up. His hope was firmly anchored in the Lord and Him alone. He had made a determination in his heart that God is who He says He is and if God said that He would be faithful to keep His word, then to Abraham, it was settled, God would be faithful, and He would keep His word. 

The passage goes on to state that Abraham was persuaded that God would keep his promise to him. Not just partially persuaded or somewhat convinced, but FULLY persuaded that God had the power to keep His word. No wonder his faith is attributed to him as righteousness! 

A friend recently drew my attention to Hebrews 6. This chapter again references God’s promise to Abraham. Starting in verse 13 and moving through the end of the chapter, it talks about the certainty of God’s promise. As I read through the passage, verse 18 caused me to pause and ponder. It made mention of there being two unchangeable things that solidified the certainty of His promise. Not fully understanding what was being said, I decided to do some studying and what I discovered wowed and amazed me! In true God fashion, He doesn’t just stop at giving ONE measure of certainty to His promise, but He doubles down and gives TWO! In verse 16, it’s mentioned that when people were to swear by a name greater than their own, that whatever they promised was a done deal and put an end to all arguments. What they said would be done, end of story. So God, operating under this same principle when making promises, swears by the name above all other names, His own! And like oaths made by other people in this manner, God leaves no room for argument. If He said it, it is as good as done! In swearing by His own name, He puts an end to all argument, whatever He has truly said will come to pass! And if that’s not enough of a guarantee, God adds another measure of security to His promises by way of His very own nature. It is impossible for God to lie. If He doesn’t follow through on His promise, then He’d be a liar, and that is NOT who God is! The fulfillment of God’s promises to us may not always look like what we think it should or even happen when we think it should, but God has gone above and beyond to make sure we know that if He said it, then it’s done! No arguments and no lies!