God of Full Promises

When we read the Bible, some things happen rather quickly. The stories about the miraculous healings, for example, seem to take but a blink of an eye. Of course, we know that things never happen as quickly as we can read about them - the bleeding woman waited for her healing for twelve years. But we can still get the wrong idea. 

Thankfully, the Bible has something to say about the right idea, too. Namely, the Bible has something to say about the times when the full promise seems really far off. 

And what the Bible says is...it's still coming. 

One of the cool things about God is that He is always reminding us of the full promise even when we only have part of it. 

Early on in Israel's story, we see this a few times as Israel is set to enter the Promised Land. They start dividing the land, and God reminds them that there's more land to their promise than they are thinking about right now. They start to take the land, and they get even more excited about dividing it, and God reminds them again that there's more land to their promise than they are thinking about right now. 

At every step, when God's people are looking at all of the good things that they've got, God keeps raising their chins and calling their eyes to look out and see that...there is more even than this. 

The same is true in the Gospels. 

Jesus is the fulfillment of a lot of promises of God. If you ever take the time to go through and see just how many promises are fulfilled in the life of Christ, it's absolutely astounding. The people of the region of Galilee are, rightfully, amazed every time they see Jesus do something. All of the talk is, "Could this be the guy? Is this the Messiah? Is this happening right before our eyes the way that it looks like it is?" 

Yet, for as much good as Jesus does and for as many promises as He fulfills, even Jesus keeps lifting their chins and pointing them to the horizons. He keeps talking not about what is happening now, but what is still going to happen. He keeps pointing to the big plan - the Kingdom of God - the ultimate promise. 

There's even one point where Jesus just flat out says, "You think this is amazing? Just wait." Just wait until you see the fullness of what God has planned for you. Just wait until you see this whole glorious Kingdom come. Just wait until I come back again. 

Just wait. 

Because the promise is bigger than even what you see of it right now. 

And I absolutely love this about God. I love that He doesn't let our eyes look down for too long, but that He doesn't take away the joy we have at this moment, either. He doesn't diminish what is already fulfilled, but He doesn't let us settle for the smaller things.

Look up, child. The horizons stretch beyond your wildest imagination and into the deepest, most abundant, most full fulfillment of every good promise God has made. 

And He won't let you forget it.