The Bible is filled with promises from God, things He promises to His dear children, which is all of us who love Him.

Do you remember your parents making promises to you? I don’t remember the exact wording, but I remember things like “I’ll take you to the pool later” or “If you take care of your brother, I will take you to get ice cream later.” Unfortunately, some (perhaps many) of those promises didn’t happen. But I didn’t wallow in bitterness and self-pity because I knew that life interrupted those plans, so the plans (and the promises) had to change. I am certain that I told my own children many things that I planned to do and promised them we would do them…but then, life happened and those things didn’t.

The great thing about God’s promises is that He is actually able to keep all of them because He is in charge on the plan. Life doesn’t get in His way, circumstances don’t thwart His plan. He says it and He then fulfills it.

Do you see how these verses go together? God doesn’t lie. He fulfills what He says He will do. One of His promises is to watch over us, always. That doesn’t mean that we don’t get hurt sometimes. I have fallen more times than I can count and from my position on the floor, it didn’t look a lot like God was watching over me. But I know that He was. A few broken bones, but no serious damage or lasting harm. And each time I fell, I learned a lesson about how not to fall, like moving more slowly, not rising quickly and using my cane or Walker consistently. God watches over us, but He does expect us to use the tools that He has already given us to try to keep us safe.

Sometimes, the fulfillment of God’s promises don’t look like we imagine and then we start thinking that He didn’t keep His promise. Yes, He did and He does, just not always the way we expected. In the long run, what God does to keep His promise will be better than we expected and more than we needed. God does keep His promises in His Word, but sometimes we have to be in tune with the Holy Spirit to see God working in our lives as He fulfills His Word to us. If we are depending on our natural eyes to see God’s hand at work, we won’t see it. God is Spirit, and as hard as it is for us to understand, we cannot put Him in a box and say that He promised thus and so and it has to be exactly what we expect. Allowing God free rein (also reign) to work in our lives is the best way I can think of to release Him to fulfill His promises in our lives.

I am a person who loves to check off lists. So, here is one that I think you can use, too.

God saved me. ✅

God shows His love for me. ✅

God fulfilled His promise to sacrifice His Son for me. ✅

God sent the promised Holy Spirit to lead me. ✅

God desires a relationship with me. ✅

What can you add to this checklist that shows more promises that God has fulfilled in your life? As I said at the beginning, the Bible is full of His promises, and so are our lives.