Politicians, Promises and Predetermined Choices

If you are a news junkie (like me), you cringe when elections come around.  Scandals and innuendoes about people running for office dominate the media.  It makes you wonder why anyone would ever want to put themselves in that position.  They all say they do it because they are working to make a better life for the people, but in the end, we find ourselves asking the question, "Are they really?"

It is hard to trust politicians.  They often make promises they don't keep.  It seems promises are made to win elections, not to help govern a free society.  Even those politicians who appear to mean what they say at the beginning of their campaigns soon get caught up in politics as usual.  Once the hard reality of the office hits the politician, there is a great deal of backtracking done.  The complicated process or the opposite party gets blamed for unkept promises. It sometimes makes me wonder if a monarchy isn't better (just kidding).

Politicians aren't the only ones who have a problem with promises.  We all do.  Who among us could say they have kept every promise they ever made?  There is only one person who ever lived who made good on all His promises.  One of the most comforting things about being a Christian is that God can be trusted. He doesn't have a faulty memory. Some of His promises have already been fulfilled and some of His promises are for the future, but He has proven Himself trustworthy. He says what He means. He means what He says. We can count on Him.

I recently led a Bible study where we looked at a specific characteristic of David, the man after God's own heart.  Through his psalms, we discovered many instances where he declared what he was going to do.  It was nearly like David was thinking out loud as he said in psalm after psalm, "I will." His predetermined choices were to: praise God, sing praises to His name, not be afraid, worship in God's house, tell of His works, give thanks, trust Him, rejoice in Him, wash his hands in innocence, restrain his mouth, teach others God's ways, wait on God, lie down in peace, hope always, go in God's strength and many others. Even after making his predetermined choice to follow God, David still sinned.  He always returned to God through repentance, however, and would then again state his intentions to follow Him.

One of the ladies in the class remarked, "We can choose to say, 'I will,' like David did, but what about the times when we don't follow through?"  The general consensus of the group - the answer to that question - was, the more good predetermined choices you make, the more likelihood you will be faithful to Him in most of them.  It is when we don't give thought to what we will do and just let life happen, that we are so susceptible to falling prey to being less than what He wants us to be.

Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You. In God (I will praise His word), in God I have put my trust; I will not fear. What can flesh do to me? (Psalm 56:3-4 NKJV).