We are doing a tour devotional each night on tour. If you’re not quite up to date, it’s called The Promise Remains Tour, hereafter referred to as PRT. So our devotions are based on the promises of God. The first thing I’ve learned is that the concepts of promise and God are a strange combination. We, as humans, promise to show someone we really meant what we said. But God doesn’t need to do that. God always means what He says. When He speaks, it creates truth. He calls things into existence. God’s promises are just when He says something is going to occur, when He puts it in the future tense. When He says, “I will…”, it’s going to happen. You can count on it. We call those promises. So I thought I would share some of what we’re talking about each night.
The first promise I found was God talking to Adam. He had just stated that it was not good for the man to be alone. Then God says, “I will make him a helper fit for him” (Gen. 2:18b ESV). So this is where we started. God is already building community in the second chapter of the Bible. He is matching us, completing us. Most of us find that in our spouses. God makes a person fit for us, that is strong where we are weak, that loves when we don’t, that notices what we miss. It doesn’t mean that we are now perfect or complete once we are together. Only God completes us. But we have a helper. My wife likes to call it a partner-in-crime. Personally, I try to leave the crime out of it. Additionally, many of us find helpers among our friends, among our church. God makes people that help us become the person He wants us to be. That is a primary purpose of a spouse, friend, or any kind of helper. God didn’t just want Adam to have help being happy. God wanted him to have help walking out the plan God had for him. You can see so much of our dating and friendship cycles in this first story. We look through so man options, trying to find a helper from among the birds, the bees, the animals, the plants. We look at so many things that must seem ridiculous to God. Especially when He already knows His plan to match us with a helper He has designed. And we try to fill that need with a duck-billed platypus.
We’ve seen that on tour as well. We thought maybe Leeland would be a good match. What about Sanctus Real? Maybe Derek Webb and Andrew Peterson? Andrew and Sara Groves? (Actually, I still have hope for those last couple of ideas, maybe in the future.) But we throw out all our ideas. All the while God has matched us up with those who will help us complete His plan for us. This fall it’s our brothers in Building 429 and our sisters in Kimber Rising. At church, God has paired us up with the Recovery at the Stone ministry. In Austin, He has joined us with our friends and families that help us walk His path. Rarely does God choose what I thought would be the best idea. Yet somehow, His plan always works. And that’s how we learn to trust Him. To trust the Promiser. The Promiser who has the power and desire to fulfill each and every one of His promises.
Your thoughts?
Todd
I’ve never heard God called The Promiser before, that is so right and so beautiful. I think that our “helpers” are all different also at different stages in our life. All a part of God’s timing of what we need when we need it.
The idea of a partner-in-crime, lol, now that’s funny! And the duck-billed platypus, you guys must watch Phineas and Ferb too, that show rocks!
Todd- I asked if you would be singing Our Great God. I heard about our great God in every song that you sang. Thank you for a wonderful evening of worship!
Todd,
I often ask why is it so hard for me to remember and “stand on his promises”
I agree God talking and calling it promises does seem to be redundant.
If you, AP and Sara Groves (whom both I am very fond of) ever toured limited dates PLEASE make Western NC one of those gigs!! That would be the best show to see…
Although, with Jennifer Knapp coming back out of hiding I always thought of her, yourself and Joy doing a split billed show. Hey I could dream…
I’m really thankful for the faithful Promiser and for the many times when He has said “no” to my plans and “yes” to the His plans that draw me closer to His heart and teach me how to love, even when it hurts.
I am really behind on the Agnew blogs! It amazes me how God brings his people through similar seasons at the same time. He has been teaching me about His promises lately, also, but mostly from the New Testament.
I am also learning more deeply what it is to find completeness in Him. Or, rather, being brought back to the satisfaction and completeness I once had found so fully in Him. He is my helpmate, and I am being reminded of how no one else can be my confidant, relied upon, or take care of ALL my needs (financial, physical, and spiritual) even close to the way GOD can and DOES!
With every atom that makes up who I am, every emotion, with all my soul and spirit, I crave to know God more, to be more intimate with Him and to accept His love more and return it in a better way to Him, that He will TRULY be glorified and known through my life in the GREATEST calculation possible!