This past weekend in Elevate I taught a message about God’s promises.  The premise was simple:

No one person is at 100% promises kept…except God. Therefore, we should fully trust in God’s promises!

I opened the talk building a case as to why we live in a world where no one operates at 100% promises kept.  Of course, I had to talk about the guarantee Rasheed Wallace made in Game 2 of the Conference Finals in 2004.  He blurted out, “We will win game 2” and made a promise to the entire city of Detroit. Luckily it panned out for him…but it doesn’t always work that way.

It was a solid case, because it was true.  This doesn’t make people bad, it just means we’re all in the same boat when it comes to this reality.  God is the only one in history to have never broken a promise.

Fast forward a few days and I was listening to Bob Goff’s new book “Everyone, Always” on Audible.  He was talking about God’s promises, and he said this line:

God doesn’t just give us promises, he gives us people!

My mind started racing.

But wait.  I just gave a talk about how people let us down and the only person that’s batting .1000 when it comes to “promises made vs. promises kept” is God.

Just then I felt the nudge of God whisper, “You forgot about grace.”

Sure, people mess up and break promises.  But people also show up and are great examples of God’s love.

While what I said was still true — only God operates at 100%, I was a bit more polarizing than I needed to be. Goff’s point brought me back to the middle where grace often is…the middle ground that says even though we often fail, God still uses us to be there for each other.

One of the many promises we can bank on is God always being with us…and sometimes He may use a friend or family member who is consistently showing up in times of need to showcase that promise.

Even though your friend, or your parents, or your spouse, will eventually break a promise (big or small), God can still use them to bring you through hard times, or show you grace + forgiveness when you stumble or do something dumb.

The promises of God can be fully trusted, and sometimes God uses other people, even though we’re flawed, to come through on those promises.

Grateful for grace.