Promise-Keeping God!

This is from “God is in the Small Stuff at Christmas” by Bruce & Stan…good stuff!

Christmas hope is thousands of years old, rooted in the history of the Jews. God had promised them a Messiah who would be their deliverer. They relied upon this hope when enslaved by Pharaoh in Egypt. Sustained by this hope when taken captive by Assyria and again when Jerusalem was destroyed and the Jews were exiled to Babylon. Then during the earthly lifetime of Jesus, with the Jews suffering under the tyranny of the Roman Empire they anxiously waited for the Messiah to lead a political revolt. The birth of Christ was God’s promise to send a Messiah, but few people recognized it as that. They waited for the arrival of a conquering hero, someone tall, holding a sword in his outstretched hand. They weren’t expecting an infant squirming in a hay-strewn feeding trough. Now two thousand years later, God is still in the promise keeping business. The Bible contains promises that God has made and not forgotten: You can turn to Him in times of crisis; He will provide for you in times of need; He loves you as His own child.
Skeptics might say that these are empty promises—nothing more than wishful thinking. But the hope of Christmas proves skeptics wrong. These are promises of the same God who made good on His pledge to send a Messiah. The God who invaded earth with His presence on that first Christmas night to fulfill His promise is the same God who can fulfill His promises to you. God has proved Himself to be reliable. He can be trusted. Thought the difficulties of life might make you question God’s faithfulness, He is a worthy recipient of your hope. Maybe that is one reason He’s given us the hope of Christmas. It is a perennial reminder that God keeps His promises…and you can hang your hope on that.