A promise is a declaration or assurance, stating a commitment to give or do something specific. Whether what has been promised is actually done is a different question.

The first message for Advent, however, is: God keeps what He has promised! After the fall, He promised the first human beings that He would send them a Redeemer, and He confirmed this again and again through the prophets. This promise was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Yet only very few really recognised Him. Only those to whom the Holy Spirit revealed it could really recognise who He was. It was the same for the disciples. Only after the Holy Spirit had come upon them were they truly able to recognise that all the promises from the Old Testament had been fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

It is the Holy Spirit who proclaims God’s promises to us; it is the Holy Spirit who keeps them alive in our hearts; and it is the Holy Spirit who lets us experience their fulfilment. We have been promised that Jesus Christ, our Saviour, will return. This promise is being kept alive in our hearts so that we can experience its fulfilment.

Those who allow the Holy Spirit to lead them will experience that God keeps what He has promised!

Food for thought from a divine service by the Chief Apostle