Heavenly Father,
You are a promise keeper. You said to Abraham that you would make him into a great nation, and you did. When that nation were enslaved in Egypt, you promised to free them from captivity, and you did. You promised to take them into a rich land of blessing, and you did. You promised to make them your people, and you did; to be their God, and you are. You promised to bless their obedience, and punish their wrong; and you did both those things. But you also promised to never leave or forsake them, and you have always stayed with them, even in their exile and disobedience. You promised to bring them out of exile and back to their land, and you did that too.
You promised a king who would sit on the throne forever, and a prophet to guide your people, a suffering servant who would take away our sins. And you have given us all of those in your son Jesus Christ. What an amazing God you are, that you would bind yourself to us with such promises, and continue to keep them regardless of our constant failures and rebellions. It is so wonderful to know that no matter how faithless we might be, you remain faithful to us. We thank you that even if we can't rely on ourselves to keep promises to you, we can rely on you to keep your promises to us.
And you have made yet more promises, that we can't always see fulfilled right at the moment. You promise that you always work for our good as we love you. Help us to love you then, knowing that our good times and our bad times are in your hands, and that you have only our best interests at heart, and always work for our benefit. Help us to believe in you for this, even when we can't see any way something might be good. We pray for those who suffer from sickness, from pain, from stressful circumstances, from loneliness and abuse and mistreatment and neglect; help them to have faith in your goodness when nothing else looks good.
You promise that your Holy Spirit dwells within us, marking us as guaranteed members of your family, and transforming us to be more and more like you. Help us to constantly strive to be more like you, even when we fail in sin, even when it hurts, even when we feel like we are far from you and have our doubts and our questions. We pray for those who you have called into your family and who yet live with failure, with sin, with doubts. Draw them close to you, and help them to know your genuineness even in the midst of doubt. You promise that mercy is blessed; that purity is blessed; that peace is blessed; that righteousness is blessed; that persecution is blessed; that poverty is blessed; that meekness is blessed. We take you at your word, and seek to live for your blessing.
You promise that you will bring to yourself a people who you will call your own, that will be countless in number, that will live for you in perfect harmony forever, free from sickness, hunger or pain of any kind. You promise that Jesus will return, and take all of your people to be with you in a new heaven and new earth forever - and that he will judge wickedness and evil, and it will be banished forever. We long for those days, Lord; help us to have a thirst for that day, and to constantly look forward to it, and to live for it. And fill us with love so that we may long to see our many friends and co-workers and loved ones join us in that day; that we may long to see so many strangers we don't know on that day, and that we might even see our enemies who seek to hurt us and harm us and ruin us, stripped of their evil just as we are, and saved right alongside us on that day.
Let your promises ring true to us, and shape our lives so that we are living on the assumption that everything you have promised is true, is happening, and will happen. Let your word be our firm footing, for every step we walk this week, this year, and in this whole lifetime.
In Jesus' name we pray,
Amen
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