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God is a promise maker, not a promise breaker.

Promises are so easily broken. Even the most intentional, legally-binding, or emotionally-invested promises get broken. 

This is why when I read a promise that God makes to me, I sometimes tend to not accept it fully. I find myself thinking that there has to be ifs, buts and loopholes.

but I have to remind myself of this same truth: God is a promise maker, not a promise breaker. He is faithful and true, even when we are not. 

I have thankfully less than a handful of times in my life where I was truly faced with what felt like overwhelming fear. Fear that could not be consoled. Sobbing in your bed at night, anxiously shaking, overthinking, projecting worst case scenarios on the daily type of fear. 

For me, those were some of the hardest times to believe God’s promises in the fullest but also the times I clinged to those promises the most – or rather wanted to and had to actively push myself to cling to them.

It was days and seasons like those when I would set reminders on my phone (reminders I still have) every 30 minutes of a promise of God or truth of God I could trust because my anxious thoughts were that frequent and needed to be interrupted. 

It was days and seasons like those when I would live out the calling to pray without ceasing. I would pour sermons and studies and verses and podcasts and books into myself filling myself up with truth because deep down I knew God was the ONLY One who could console me. He was the only One I could trust. 

One beautiful characteristic about God is that He is the same yesterday, today and forever. That means He is the same God we love when life feels like a mountaintop and success is all we know and love is abundant and happiness is overflowing. He is the same God in the valley of the shadow of death when fear surrounds and hope FEELS lost and trust is broken and pain is aching and nothing feels safe. 

He doesn’t change. And, friends, He knows the end from the beginning. On those mountaintop days, He knew the valley was coming and in the valley days He knows when the mountain will come again. 

BUT HE IS GOD AND HE IS GOOD AND HE KEEPS PROMISES IN ALL SEASONS. 

The only and best way to get through the valley is to wholly lean on God. 

There have been seasons where I literally for the first time felt FULLY abandoned. FULLY out of control, literally depending on God for what felt like getting me through every moment. Knowing I can do nothing without Christ and therefore Christ has to do it ALL, I’m just going to be still and let God fight for me. Moments when trusting God was the only option. 

It’s funny because it’s always the only option but we only realize it when the appearance of control we think we had in our lives starts to diminish. 

Friend, REST in the promises of God in every season but especially when you face overwhelming fear. What good are promises of they’re not kept in the THICK of it? What good is a promise if it’s not TRIED and TRUE. And I promise YOU He comes out a faithful promise keeper every time. 

Some small tips I would suggest to rest in His promises would be these

1. Seek out those promises. Do a study on promises God makes to His people. Write them down and pray over them, sit with them, learn them, ask God to help you trust them. 
2. Remind yourself of promises. I personally set reminders on my phone every 30 minutes and now it’s hourly of promises and truths and exhortations to constantly bring my mind and thoughts back to Him and His truth, to actively settle my heart and mind, to actively not fear and trust in God instead. 
3. Voice your fear to a believer who also knows God’s promises. This was life changing for me. To be able to voice my fears to friends and family and have them pierce through my tunnel vision of very real fear with truth. Some of their those moments of their God-given encouragement are things I STILL cling to months and years later.  

I think it does come down to this. God is a promise keeper but we have to believe His promises to claim them. They are ever real and ever true, but we can’t REST in those promises until we actually believe them. 

Someone can promise to protect us, but if we don’t believe them, we can spend our lives, even by their side, filled with fear and on guard.

They promised and they’ll do it, but if we don’t embrace or believe their promise, we’ll go through life without peace, fearful, anxious and on guard. It’s almost as if, from our perspective, we don’t have the promise at all.

I found that I easily walk through life half-heartedly believing some of these promises and the many other promises GOD promises us.

But God makes PROMISES, covenants, assurances, and He does not break them.

God makes promises, but if I don’t embrace them and claim them, it’s almost as if I don’t receive it, even though He PROMISED.

We may have reason to doubt people’s promises, but God does not break His promises. He’s the most faithful promise-maker.

And God’s promises are life-altering. 

Honestly, I’ve personally found it NECESSARY to claim these promises in order to pull through trials and fully enjoy good times.

Those promises are there to be claimed. Let’s claim them.