But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. Hebrews 8:6
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Whereas animals perform their daily routines – hunting, mating, raising their young, and whatever else animals do – largely on the basis of past experience, human beings take an altogether different approach to life. Animals are instinctive in their behavior; human beings are anticipatory.
What I mean by this is, animal behavior is guided, for the most part, by built-up experience and genetic inheritance – what animals have known and done in the past. On the other hand, while people are not unmindful of past experience, and can benefit from or be harmed by it, they tend to be oriented in their behavior toward the future. People live each day for the prospect of what they hope to gain, not merely what they’ve always known. People are motivated by promise. They engage in relationships, choose careers, settle in communities, make friends, take up avocations, choose their investments, and do practically everything else on the basis of what they hope or expect to gain from their actions. It is built into the human soul to live toward the future and the prospects and hopes of what our decisions and actions may produce. One of the primary points of schooling, indeed, of all child-rearing, is to hold out the prospect of what their lives can be and to encourage the young to dream and work toward their dreams.
The problem is that our ability to envision promises is often based on a faulty worldview. If we believe that everything we can have in life is determined by what we know about ourselves and our strengths and limitations, coupled by what we suspect – from experience – the opportunities for us may be, then the promises we pursue will be constrained by our finite understanding and limited experience. It’s not surprising, therefore, that we often find that our promises, once realized, are not as bright and satisfying as we’d hope they would be. Whereupon we set off in search of other, better promises – very often with the same result.
What shall we do? We will pursue promises – it’s how we live – and our promises are likely to leave us looking for more promises. But what if the promises held out to us are not those of our own devising or dreaming? What if the promises we embrace, and around which we order our whole lives, are offered to us by God? Those would be “better promises”, indeed. As it happens, Jesus Christ does offer “better promises” for all who have entered into a covenant relationship with Him by grace through faith. And His promises, offered within the worldview of His Kingdom, are not just “better promises” but truly precious and very great promises, as we shall see.
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Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture references are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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Hello. We live in Calgary Alberta which is in mountain time zone. Viewpoint arrived this morning almost 3 hours after my husband and I normally read and pray. We have been using viewpoint as part of our morning devotional time and it's disappointing when it arrives late. Could you send it in the middle of the night so that it's available no matter what time zone people are in.
Thank you
Promises
Carol Woods makes this comment
2010-03-15 14:02:58