Devotional: Excited

I was 12 years old living in Salt Lake City, Utah. Nothing much happened there and there wasn’t much excitement. All we had to look forward to in our town was the Utah Jazz. This was back when Karl Malone and John Stockton were doing very well, but they just couldn’t win a championship. But this year wasn’t even about the NBA championships, this was the year of the Olympics in Atlanta and it was all about the Dream Team winning the gold medal. My dad told my brother and I that he got tickets to an exhibition match at the Delta Center in Salt Lake, and that we would get to see the Dream Team in action against the Olympic team from Australia. We were so excited! My brother and I had never been to an NBA basketball game, and now we were skipping that step and seeing a match that the entire world would watch. But our dad wasn’t the kind of dad that kept his promises and our excitement quickly dwindled. We thought that it was too good to be true and that the time game day approached something would come up, as it often did, and we would not get to see the game. It was hard to be excited when we both expected disappointment. We would ask our dad almost every day if he was sure we would see the game and of course he responded with a yes, but we always doubted in our hearts. Weeks passed and finally game day came, our dad put a “USA” hat on his head and told us to hurry up and get in the car. My brother and I had literally forgotten about our dad’s promise to take us to the game since we never believed it would happen anyway. When we got to the stadium there were news cameras from all over the world covering the game and we even walked behind a camera and put up the two-fingered “peace” sign. The game was a fun one to watch as the Dream Team won the 118 points to a mere 77 points by the Australians. This was the first time we saw our dad keep a promise and follow through with his word. Sadly, it was also one of the last times…

Do you get excited about God’s promises, or do you expect to be disappointed? As humans we are flawed individuals who will eventually let each other down, hurt each other, and make huge mistakes. But God ALWAYS delivers on his promises! Philippians 4:19 says “And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” So get excited about God’s promises, because He will never fail you!

Much Love, Ryan,