A buddy of mine was telling me about his unsuccessful salmon fishing efforts last week. Even though we are having a record salmon run, he wasn’t able to catch one yet.
I have caught plenty of salmon, so I confidently told him that if he really wanted one, I would take him on Saturday. “I know a perfect spot,” I said, “Guaranteed you’ll get one. We’ll be in and out in ten minutes.” That got him excited. He was eager to get going.
When we arrived at his house, he was meticulously rigging his salmon rods. If you don’t set them up just right, you can fish all day without a hit, no matter how many fish are in the river. I told him not to waste his time, but he insisted, so I waited patiently as he tied his lines up. We loaded up the rods and his 6′ net and headed out.
He started getting confused when I drove in the opposite direction of the river. “Which river are we fishing in?” he asked. “The Columbia? Yakima? Snake?”
“We just gotta make one stop,” I replied.
He didn’t catch on when I pulled into Yokes Fresh Market. I wish you could have seen the look on his face when I walked him to the seafood section and told him to pick one out.
“Are you kidding me?” he asked incredulously.
“This is Billy’s honey-hole,” I said. “I don’t have to freeze outside in the cold, I don’t have to spend all day, I don’t have to clean or filet it, it costs less, and I get one every time!”
He just stood there speechless, shaking his head with a look of disbelief, but also a subtle smirk as he realized he had gotten burnt. I bought a few lbs and took him back to the house for a meal. It was the least I could do after that prank.
Have you ever had someone make a promise to you, but it didn’t work out the way you were expecting? Maybe they even intentionally bamboozled you into thinking you were going to get something different than what they alluded to.
“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.” Proverbs 13:22
There are all sorts of people and things we can put our hope in, who will just end up disappointing us in the end. Not everyone keeps their promises. Credit card companies, cell phone carriers, politicians, and even family and friends. People will let you down at some point.
Put your hope and trust in God and His word. “All the promises of God are ‘Yes’ and ‘Amen’ in Jesus Christ.” Every promise He has made, He will fulfill.
In Romans 5:5 it says that our “hope does not disappoint…”
God is not a man, that He should lie. In fact, it is impossible for God to lie, according to the scriptures.
He will do what He says. The fulfillment of His promises to you and to me is coming.
“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is long suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” 2Peter3:9
God isn’t lazy concerning His promises. It’s not as though He is thinking He will fulfill them when He gets around to it. He is being long suffering, or incredibly patient, because He is waiting for more people to come to repentance. At the appointed time, He will come, and He will fulfill everything He has promised to Christian and non-Christian. It will all come to pass, just as He has said.
Are you prepared for it?
Are you looking forward to His coming?