Week 21 - May 19-25, 2024: You Can Rely on God's Promises

This week’s daily readings:

May 19-25, 2024

This week’s devotional:

You Can Rely on God’s Promises

by The Rev. Justin Elerath

Scripture:

I rise before dawn and cry for help;
    I have put my hope in your word.
My eyes stay open through the watches of the night,
    that I may meditate on your promises. 

— Psalm 119:147-148 (NIV) 

Reflection:

Promises are something we all have some experience with. We have all made promises, and likely broken them. We have all been promised something, and experienced what it’s like when that promise is broken. 

As a child, I remember my brother and sister and I promised our parents that we would take care of a dog if they got us one. We would bathe it, we would feed it, we would water it, we would walk it, we would brush it, and (most of all) we would clean the yard after it. Now, my parents knew better than to believe our promises, but they gave us a dog one year – a 16-pound terrier mix that was the friendliest dog you would ever want to meet. However, we failed to follow through on all our promises.

We want to surround ourselves with people we can trust: someone who will make a promise and follow through. That’s usually a one-sided expectation, as our own sin nature makes us inherently unreliable. God’s Word, however, is inherently reliable, but it is so easy to neglect his Word. It is easy to get busy or to allow our focus to be on man’s word instead. God’s Word is so reliable that we can place our hope in it. We can cry out for help, and count on God’s Word! When God makes a promise, we can be assured that it will come to be. 

Let us follow David’s example: let’s rise before dawn and cry for help. We should put our hope in God’s Word. We need to keep watch through the night and meditate on God’s promises. God is as good as his Word! 

Prayer: 

Lord, I praise you that, compared to the promises of people, your promises are good and true! As I learn more and more about your Word, I can rest assured that you love me and are capable of helping me through all the troubles life brings. I thank you for the psalms of David. Let me use these verses as an example. Help me always keep my eyes on you. I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen