Hebrews 13:5 - "I will never ..."
It is amazing the transformations that happen in people as they grow up when it comes to concept of promises. As children, we are very trusting and yes, even gullible to outside influences. We look up to those older than we are and we put an automatic trust in those individuals as well. As we mature, we lose some of that trust because we assumed, even if we didn't really know what to call it while we were younger, that when someone said they would do something, it was an automatic promise that they would in fact do it. With maturity we found we would have to differentiate between the trust factor and untruth factor. We learned to ask the people if they promised to do it or not. If they answered yes, we would raise the trust factor and accept it as truth. As a teenager, we have watched adults for a while now and have learned the art of lying. We could promise anything and then not do it and try to make excuses for not having done it. As an adult, the trust factor is very limited. In fact, to many, the view by many is "Trust no one".
This is a part of what God has to work with when He is drawing us unto Himself. We have to reach beyond the trust factor and simply
have that child-like faith to accept what He says as truth. Think about this for a minute with me.
Jesus says, "Come unto me" and we who have been hurt by those who rejected us in life, begin to doubt His statement. I had a friend whose parent would tell him to jump to her and she would catch him. When he jumped, the mom moved out of the way and he fell to the floor. She did this a few times over, and after the last time, she said to him, "Don't trust anyone". It is no wonder that we are a little skeptical at times in coming to Jesus - even if He isn't the one who did anything to us.
Jesus says, "I will forgive your sins" and we say, yeah-sure, prove it. Why would someone, anyone, let alone the Son of God, want to take our filthy rags of sin and give us a new wardrobe of clean living? Again, it is the faith factor that a child can accept and we struggle with. Even after we accept His forgiveness and we do sin again, (Remember - Sin is a wrong choice we make) we may struggle with doubt.
Jesus said, "I will never leave you, nor forsake you", and we doubt that anyone can be that sincere and that trustworthy. We may think that He is just drawing us to Himself so He can than leave us and then we can flop at this life as a Christian.
He made us promises and it is up to us to accept them as truth. Give it a try, I promise, you will not be disappointed.
