Think of it as a lesson in
Have you ever watched the children’s movie, Inkheart? It’s the story where the words read come to life, and the
Words are our form of explaining and describing the things we have experienced or not, the feelings we have, something we want to give explanation to, and so on. In the same way as the movie does, we live in and through the world of our words.
If you were to take a look at the urbandictionary.com, the crowd-sourced online dictionary for slang words and phrases, with the motto, “Define Your World”, you would find that the definition for the phrase “sure thing” is –
1. a casual or friendly, “you’re welcome”, “no problem”, “don’t mention it”, “sure, yeah I’m in”.
2. an enthusiastic response similar to, “of course” or “hell yeah”.
3. a gambling term where the bettor exclaims and places his bet with extreme confidence, “It’s a win, for sure!”
4. a term that means a person that will definitely give you sex, no excuses, no ifs,
If your source was a more conservative dictionary, the definition would read – something guaranteed, or an enthusiastic assent, “yes indeed!”
Synonyms (which I like to browse) include, all sewn up, dead certainty, foregone conclusion, locked in, come rain or shine, a sure bet.
You get the idea! All of these express the state or quality of a confident certainty. Yet we learn to trust certainty loosely. Anything can happen to change the ‘certainty’ and we’ve got to be ready to adjust to the certain uncertainty of it. Isn’t it strange that the word ‘sure’ or ‘certain’ isn’t certain at all?
“I’m not sure”, “I doubt it”, “I’m uncertain”, “don’t count on it”, “I worry that it
“Sure!” basically means, “I’d like to, but I’m not making any promises”. If something else comes up, we’ll choose the better option on the day.
“Definitely!” is a step up from “sure”, meaning “I really want to, and I’m going to try my best to”, but often that too will fail because something happens and we have to make different plans.
“I promise!” takes it a little further than “definitely” and says that, “I will do everything possible…” but promises are often broken because things happen that are out of our control.
“I swear” is perhaps our greatest attempt at being the surest, most certain, definite affirmation we give where we will try to move heaven and earth to do as we have said. We have no intention of not following through, changing our mind, going with the best option at the time, or breaking our promise.
In the Bible’s Old Testament, there was a custom where to make an oath, where people sought to make good on their word, they swore on an authority higher than themselves. For example in the book of Genesis, Joseph swears on the Pharaoh whom he served, “as surely as Pharaoh lives…” Genesis 42:15. Abner does the same when answering his king, “As surely as you live, Your Majesty…” 1 Samuel 17:55. When Hannah spoke to the priest at the temple concerning a promise made, she said, “Pardon me, my lord. As surely as you live…”1 Samuel 1:26. Sometimes we will say something similar, “I swear on my mother’s grave…” It is an expression we use, to try and express upmost certainty about something. Over 40 times in the Bible, it is recorded, “As sure as the LORD lives…” said by either a person making an oath, or by God swearing on His own name.
Sometimes we will say of someone “they’re good for it” meaning we are testifying or confirming the character of the person as being trustworthy, and that if they said they would do something, they will. Saint Paul would have been one that people said this about, but things came up and he was unable to be where he promised he would be, and he says to those he had promised, “Was I fickle when I intended to do this? Or do I make my plans in a worldly manner so that in the same breath I say both “Yes, yes” and “No, no”?” 2 Corinthians 1:17. Sometimes despite our very best intentions, our “sure thing!” is not able to be followed through.
As humans, realistically we are unable to give our 100% surety, and often we have experienced a promise made to us by someone who has no real intention to keep it. God says, “Although they say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives,’ still they are swearing falsely” Jeremiah 5:2. We can not make any kind of assurance where we can be totally sure. But of God, we read “The Lord Almighty has sworn, “Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will happen” Isaiah 14:24.
God uses His name to proclaim something is a sure thing because one, there is no authority higher than Himself, and two, because what He says, He will do. Period. He is completely reliable. He is completely trustworthy. The fact is, God doesn’t even need to swear, promise, or make an oath. His simple “yes” means beyond a doubt, it will happen. “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ” 2 Corinthians 1:20.2
Right back at the beginning of time, Adam and Eve’s confidence in God’s love came without any measure of doubt, and with absolute certainty, in the One they were sure about. It was love, pure and perfect, that was expected and experienced in the Garden – the only humans ever to fully experience this. They didn’t need any metaphors like the many we hear, where writers attempt to explain God’s love in ways that we might better understand. Hosea, for example, when speaking about the sure thing of God says, “As surely as the sun rises He will appear” Hosea 6:3. Adam and Eve simply lived in the understanding that God’s love was a sure thing.
Sure, interestingly, is also defined as habitual. God’s love was habitual love. Adam and Eve never experienced anything other than the same
It’s hard now, in the world we live in since their Fall – the disappointment of expectations in love not being met, the doubt. We live in the antonyms of sure and certain and we have learnt to hold love loosely. If we hold love loosely it means we don’t get hurt, that it doesn’t matter if promises are broken, expectations not met, dates postponed, emotions not anticipated. What follows is having to be convinced or persuaded that even perfect love, God’s love, is worthy of our confidence, and is unfailing in its surety.
The certainty of God’s love meant Adam and Eve felt loved to their very core. They knew nothing else and so they lived into who they were created to be, very good, secure, knowing complete joy and acceptance in their being, totally at peace and happy to be themselves, confident in their uniqueness and abilities, always encouraged to try more, to be more, to discover more. Its what the surety of love does.
How sad it must all appear to the One who is sure and pure and perfect in love! But despite where we are at, and the broken love we experience, the sure thing about God’s love is that it remains to be, and is always, sure. When He promises to love us, He does. When He says He will be there, He is. When we are told His love does not fail us, it doesn’t.
As with Hosea’s metaphor, the most sure thing we can know on this earth is God’s love for us. Emotionally, when everything else in this world carries uncertainty, we need to know this. Just as every morning the sun rises, so too every morning God’s love is there, there for us –
“Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness”Lamentations 3:22-23.
Continued in next week’s blog…
One reply on “It’s a sure thing…”
Great read