Enjoy Life, Enjoy God

FOUNDATIONAL PROMISE

December 29, 2009

"If you agree to serve as an officer in the United States Army for a certain period of time, we will provide you a college education and military training at West Point." (or other service academy). It's a foundational promise.

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The word of the Lord came to Solomon: "As for this temple you are building, if you follow my decrees, observe my laws and keep all my commands, and obey them, I will fulfill through you the promise I gave to David your father. And I will live among the Israelites and will not abandon my people Israel."

-1 Kings 6:11-13 TNIV
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In numerous places throughout the Bible, God invites us to trust him, and he does so by providing us a promise: "If you do _________, I will do ___________." In other words, if you commit to do something (whatever is spoken), then I will do something in return. It's a foundational promise from God. In this case, it's an invitation to trust God upon the building of the temple, yet the principle applies throughout.

Our God extends to us today a similar invitation, and its a foundation for life itself: "If you will be my follower, if you will serve me as Lord of your life, I will never leave, and I will watch over you forever and ever." The issue of the foundational promise is not God's faithfulness, but ours.
Joyfully,

Dale Patterson