"I remember Your word to Your servant, in which you have made me
hope. This is my comfort in my affliction, that Your promise gives me
life." Psalm 119:49-50
Your Promise Gives Me Life
That's quite a revelation isn't it?
I'm not sure why, but that simple phrase struck me this week in a new way. I think every time I've read it in the past, I thought about how Jesus' promise to be my savior gives me life in the spiritual sense. Or I've thought about how the promise of God over my life (the dreams I believe He's put in my heart or the promises through scripture about what God has in store for those surrendered to Him) give me purpose and drive to pursue them. I'm no theologian, but I'm pretty sure these are both fair applications to take away from reading this verse.
Reading it this time, however, something else stood out to me - something that is probably not anything new or noteworthy when it comes to revelation around this phrase, but it challenged my expectations of God and myself when it comes to God's promises. So here it is: this phrase says nothing about the fulfillment of God's promise. It doesn't say "The things that you promise give me life", or "Your promise makes me pursue it's fulfillment, which gives me life".
No - contrary to my popular belief, it isn't my pursuit of the promise, nor even God's fulfillment that gives the life...it's the promise itself. Why? I wonder if perhaps God's promise can give me life (and by life I mean that aliveness that is more than the sleeping, eating, breathing of living) because His word is literally as good as if the physical evidence of His promise was placed in my hands at the same moment that it was spoken.
I often come back to a verse in Proverbs that says "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life." I've spent too much time thinking that I was living in Hope Deferred; believing that some of the things I dream about - things I feel God has set as promises in my life - were being withheld from me until I earned them, or until I had proved my patience and trust in some indeterminate and incomprehensible timing that God had in mind. I was donkey. Promise was carrot - a means of motivation and also at times disappointment and subsequent heart-sickness.
This simple phrase, 'Your Promise Gives Me Life', is challenging that mindset in me. If God's word is true (which I know it to be - I've seen it proved in my own life and through history), then His promises can be relied upon implicitly. And if the promise is guaranteed to be fulfilled, then the carrot is off the stick. In fact, there isn't really a carrot or stick at all (which is nice, because I really prefer not to think of myself as being a donkey)...there's more of a ticket: physical evidence of the concert or the event or the destination or, if you will, the dream being fulfilled.
So NOT Hope Deferred. Dream Fulfilled.
And therefore NOT Heart Sick. Life.
His Promise Gives Me [vitality, vigor, energy] Life.
Your Promise Gives Me Life
That's quite a revelation isn't it?
I'm not sure why, but that simple phrase struck me this week in a new way. I think every time I've read it in the past, I thought about how Jesus' promise to be my savior gives me life in the spiritual sense. Or I've thought about how the promise of God over my life (the dreams I believe He's put in my heart or the promises through scripture about what God has in store for those surrendered to Him) give me purpose and drive to pursue them. I'm no theologian, but I'm pretty sure these are both fair applications to take away from reading this verse.
Reading it this time, however, something else stood out to me - something that is probably not anything new or noteworthy when it comes to revelation around this phrase, but it challenged my expectations of God and myself when it comes to God's promises. So here it is: this phrase says nothing about the fulfillment of God's promise. It doesn't say "The things that you promise give me life", or "Your promise makes me pursue it's fulfillment, which gives me life".
No - contrary to my popular belief, it isn't my pursuit of the promise, nor even God's fulfillment that gives the life...it's the promise itself. Why? I wonder if perhaps God's promise can give me life (and by life I mean that aliveness that is more than the sleeping, eating, breathing of living) because His word is literally as good as if the physical evidence of His promise was placed in my hands at the same moment that it was spoken.
I often come back to a verse in Proverbs that says "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life." I've spent too much time thinking that I was living in Hope Deferred; believing that some of the things I dream about - things I feel God has set as promises in my life - were being withheld from me until I earned them, or until I had proved my patience and trust in some indeterminate and incomprehensible timing that God had in mind. I was donkey. Promise was carrot - a means of motivation and also at times disappointment and subsequent heart-sickness.
This simple phrase, 'Your Promise Gives Me Life', is challenging that mindset in me. If God's word is true (which I know it to be - I've seen it proved in my own life and through history), then His promises can be relied upon implicitly. And if the promise is guaranteed to be fulfilled, then the carrot is off the stick. In fact, there isn't really a carrot or stick at all (which is nice, because I really prefer not to think of myself as being a donkey)...there's more of a ticket: physical evidence of the concert or the event or the destination or, if you will, the dream being fulfilled.
So NOT Hope Deferred. Dream Fulfilled.
And therefore NOT Heart Sick. Life.
His Promise Gives Me [vitality, vigor, energy] Life.
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