Promise Heart

"Promised Land" by Elena Kotliarker

“12 The Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the steadfast love that he swore to your fathers. 13 He will love you, bless you, and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock, in the land that he swore to your fathers to give you. 14 You shall be blessed above all peoples. There shall not be male or female barren among you or among your livestock. 15 And the Lord will take away from you all sickness, and none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which you knew, will he inflict on you, but he will lay them on all who hate you” (Deut. 7:12-15).

Can you hear the Lord? “See, I have set before you great promises!!!! This is my heart toward you. Blessing. I blessed creation. I want to restore blessing. These are my promises that spring from my heart toward you.”

“When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than you, 2 and when the Lord your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them…. 17 If you say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I. How can I dispossess them?’ 18 you shall not be afraid of them but you shall remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt…”  (Deut. 7:1-2, 17-18).

“Will you trust me in battles against enemies more numerous and mightier than you? For victory? Not just for power to fight, but me to win the battle against enemies you are helpless against? Against your fears? Addictions? Bills? Diagnosis? Unchanging hearts of others? Bitterness? Court systems?

Battles—will you trust me? Trust me not just to give you strength. Not just to give you victory. Will you trust my good heart toward you in the battle?”

“For the Lord has ransomed Jacob and redeemed him from hands too strong for him” (Jer. 31:11).

“For not by their own sword did they win the land, nor did their own arm save them, but your [O Lord] right hand and your arm, and the light of your face, for you delighted in them” (Ps. 44:3).

“2And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. 3 And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord…. 15 who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, 16 who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end.” (Deut. 8:2-3, 15-16).

“Will you trust me in hunger? Couched in promises on either side, I assure you this is my heart. So will you trust me in hunger? In need? In fiery desert? In times when I seem silent? In illness, depression, darkness, need? When numbers don’t line up? When the judge’s sentence isn’t the desired? When the prodigal keeps running?

Hunger—will you trust me? And not just trust me for the promises, but trust that my heart toward you is still good?”

“My soul is bereft… at my stumbling they rejoiced…. Like profane mockers at a feast, they gnash at me with their teeth. How long, O Lord, will you look on?.... You have seen, O LORD, be not silent! O Lord, be not far from me!..... Great is the LORD, who delights in the welfare of his servant” (Ps. 35).

“11 Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, 12 lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, 13 and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery…. 17 Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ 18 You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day” (Deut. 8:11-14, 17-18).

“Will you trust me in plenty? That it was not you, but me? Will you trust that it is my heart to you and not just your status in middle-class America, your paycheck, your insurance? That it is my heart, and not just what you deserve?

Plenty—will you trust me? See my heart?”

Battles.

Hunger.

Plenty.

Jesus, the exact representation of God who reveals the Father (Heb. 1; Jn. 14).

Fought the greatest battle and won for us.

Faced hunger and was tested and tried, but denied himself bread for us.

Jesus, who was equal with God did not consider his equality with God something to be grasped but made himself a servant, even obedient to death, leaving his glory, having no place to lay his head. Not tempted by the power of the world, the taunts to save himself on the cross. For us.

This is his heart.

Battles.

Hunger.

Plenty.

Wherever we are, above it all, may we see God’s heart, God’s love. Through it all, may we see his heart and his love toward us.