Promises kept
A Christian Science perspective.
“Your car will be ready by 3 this afternoon.” It is a promise, perhaps from a mechanic, but will the car really be ready on time?
For most of us, each day comes with promises. A few of them may be life changers. Many of them will be inconsequential, or at most, mildly helpful. To identify which ones will make a real difference, it often comes down to which of them will be kept. And that, to a great extent, depends on who made the promise in the first place. It could have been the mechanic, the neighbor, a family member. Or perhaps it could have been someone you have never met, such as a politician. Did they, and did you, either love or hate how the recent US election turned out, especially how it affected the promise of universal health care – or the promise of getting rid of it? After all, what some voters thought promised the best solution, others thought promised the worst.
However, go deeper on this question of promises, and what do you find? There are promises that originate with people and there are promises that originate with God. The latter set of promises has something of God’s nature about them. God is the Principle of all promise, the great Physician for all ills, the Healer that binds up all broken hearts. The promises emanating from God are promises never broken. They are promises forever kept. Consider this from the Bible, given in the Almighty’s own voice. “I am with you, and I will protect you wherever you go.... I have promised you” (Genesis 28:15, New Living Translation). We want to experience God’s promised gifts – His protection, presence, and assurance, no matter where we go. If it is God that makes the promise, and if it is God that keeps the promise, what else is called for so we more consistently see and experience the blessings, the healing proofs of His kept promises?
To unleash the full healing power of a divinely made and kept promise, it is essential to remember we have a role to play. We have to, in a word, trust. Who? God. When? Now. Where? Here. Once that occurs, once we wholeheartedly trust God here and now, good multiplies. Health becomes the norm and divine care takes hold. The blessings from God’s promises – made, and kept, and trusted in – show up at every turn. The Bible sums it up this way. “God can be trusted to keep his promise” (Hebrews 10:23, NLT). We can do our part! We can trust God! And as we do so, the promise of God’s healing power comes into focus.
So far as the recent US election is concerned, you may feel you got the promise relating to universal health care for which you were hoping. Or not. Either way, God has given you a far more sweeping and far longer lasting promise about health, and about care. As we place our trust in the promise He has both made and kept, it is as if we begin to hear God say, “I will give you back your health and heal your wounds” (Jeremiah 30:17, NLT). No doubt about it. That is a promise of a wholly different order. It is a promise for health care that is spiritually based, universally available, and divinely administered. The healing begins by acknowledging what God has made, what God has kept, and what we trust.
Mary Baker Eddy included in her primary work, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” a chapter titled “Atonement and Eucharist.” It is one of the most insightful discourses ever written on the life and healing ministry of Jesus. Near the end of its final page, the chapter looks gracefully ahead. It then assures us, “The promises will be fulfilled” (p. 55). Now that is an assurance we can safely take to heart.
From an editorial in the Christian Science Sentinel.