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Promises

Dave Jackson

My grandmother was born in 1892 and lived 93 years. That means she died younger than Abraham was when God reaffirmed the promise to make him the father of a multitude of nations. Her age helps me to understand how difficult it was for Abraham to believe that he and Sarah were to have a child.

Promises from God can be powerful things. I remember when my wife and I began to write our first book. We had developed the idea out of some research for a magazine article. To write a book, we needed to extend the research over several months and much of the country. We prepared a proposal for some funding, but before we submitted it to anyone, a publisher contacted us “out of the blue” and asked if we would write the book we were planning.

Not all coincidences are messages from the Lord, but this one seemed to be. And since the Lord’s word is sure, I counted it as a promise. That sense of God’s commissioning was all that kept me going during times of fear and discouragement on the project.

In retrospect, my faith was blessed by God. We know of hundreds of people whose lives were changed in a major way, partially as a result of that book.

Given the number of minor decisions that must be made from day to day, Scripture rarely records God’s personalized direction to Bible characters. So, it may be that we should expect no difference for ourselves, even though we might think it would be nice to have divine clues for every choice.

However, the Bible does provide other promises which are for all of us, promises such as, “To all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12). Now, that’s much more profound than the specifics of writing a book, and it’s important to be able to depend upon it.

Dave and Neta Jackson, of Evanston, Ill., are the authors of many books, including the Trailblazer series of historical fiction.

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Last modified May 4, 2000.

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