Last weekend, the Prime Minister asked the Governor General to dissolve Parliament, thereby sending Canadians into an election campaign – an eleven-week season that promises to be full of, well, promises.
While there will be heaping helpings of vitriol and negative advertising, we all hope that there also will be some positive statements made; after all, we want to know more about what a party or a candidate stands for than what a party or a candidate stands against. Yet recent Canadian electoral history, at all levels, suggests to us we will see (and hear) more negative than positive campaigning.
We sometimes become jaded at hearing campaign promises, because we know that once a government is elected, the reality it faces upon taking office almost by necessity changes the outlook of the party (and its leader and its members). Some allegations against others have to be retracted. Some promises have to be reconsidered.
Human promises are almost always like that, because we can’t see much of the future. We wonder what is around the corner, but until we round it, we can’t know.
Thankfully, God can see all of the future. God knows what is around the corner, and because of that reality, we know God’s promises will always be true.
What are your favourite promises of God? I’m fond of many, but two in particular stand out for me:
“The Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Deuteronomy 31.6, NIV)
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”(Romans 8.38-39, NIV)
God’s promises, found everywhere in his Word, can be relied upon fully. What are your favourites?
