Campaigning season was one of my favorite times at the university. I was always looking forward to the 2 or 3 weeks of intense campaigning. The noise, the rallies, the posters, the sweet bribes, and the occasional ice cream always made me happy. My favorite thing was listening to the candidates make their speeches and tell us about Makerere University’s problems and what they were proposing to do to fix them.

Whether it was at a campaign rally or one-on-one, I was a good listener. I attentively listened to a candidate who assured students that they would no longer be concerned about missing marks, another who addressed the safety of girls in the university. I always found it interesting when they made over-the-top claims, but they were bold and loud – almost believable. For example those who pledged to collaborate with as many alumni as possible to repair the damaged block C of Lumumba Hall. We all knew that was not happening soon but as I said they are believable in the heat of the moment.

Watching them for years helped me understand that one thing human beings love to do is make promises. Politicians, of course, make them more than anyone else because what stands between them and the coveted seat is the number of promises they make. 

I have spent many years observing men, and I am aware that many of them share this common characteristic. A man promises the woman he loves heaven on earth and promises to forsake all others. The woman, in turn, promises to submit and devote herself to him completely. When C.E.O.’s take the job, they promise to achieve the highest turnover the company has ever seen under their leadership, and the executive directors guarantee that no matter how high the target is, they will surpass it with hard work and determination. The parent promises the child that they will receive whatever they desire. And I do not want to get started with the businessmen and the promises they make to get us to buy from them instead of their competitors.

Some of these people make these promises with the intention of fulfilling them; they come from a good heart. Others, fully aware that they will never deliver on their promises, do so because they know it’s what their audience wants to hear. Whatever the case, many times people do not deliver on the promises they have made. As certain as it is that humans make promises, it is also certain that most promises unfortunately go unfulfilled. Sometimes it is beyond our human capacity to fulfil the promise, and no matter how hard someone tries, it is not enough. 

People often carry broken hearts and feel disappointed when someone they trusted to keep a promise fails to do so. As a result, people have learned to safeguard their hearts by not trusting those who make promises and rightly so; after all many in the past have made promises but failed to fulfil them.

Regrettably, the disappointment and frustration we have experienced with people affects our view of God. Somehow, we think that even God will disappoint us and fail to fulfil his promises. Maybe God will be like most of our politicians: excite us for a season, especially when we are in church, and then, in the end, not deliver. Many of us will not openly admit it maybe for fear of being judged as a faithless Christian but if we did open heart surgeries to see what is in the hearts of men, we would find the struggle men have and the question “Can God be trusted to keep his promises?” lingering somewhere.

So I started to search scripture looking for what it had to say about promises. It had quite alot to say; I will share a few of those verses. I read some verses from Joshua. Joshua 21:45 tells us, “Not one of all the Lord’s good promises to Israel failed; everyone was fulfilled”. Joshua 23:14 asserts this further, “Now I am about to go the way of all the earth. You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed”.

Joshua was about to die when he spoke these words to his people. They say to pay attention to the last words of a dying man. It was important to remind the Israelites of the nature of God; he is a promise-keeping God. Twice, Joshua tells the people that none of the promises God made failed to come to pass. Every promise he made, he fulfilled. This is God’s nature, and no one should be more sure of this than the children of God.

The best part is that Joshua testified that he fulfilled all, not just some, of his promises. Sometimes we ask God that “kale at least do ko for me this one”. You want at least one thing in your life to be working. But if he is God, he will not stop at one, but at everything that he promised. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). If he kept his promises to the Israelites, surely he has not changed, therefore we have this confidence that he will do the same for us.

“Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation” – Simeon attested in Luke 2:28–29. We do not know when this promise was given to Simeon but he patiently waited on God for it to come to pass. One day, stirred by the Spirit of God, he went to the temple and saw Jesus. God kept his promise to this old man. Simeon testified the same thing as Joshua had testified many years ago; God keeps his promises. Judith Babirye put it well in her song “Mukama Talimba”.

God isn’t in the business of breaking hearts; he’s in the business of mending them. Many things limit men, but they do not limit God. He reassures us of this in Matthew 19:26 –  Jesus looked at them and said, “With man, this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible”. He can fulfil all his promises. Therefore, it is up to us to search the Bible to see everything he has promised and believe him to fulfil it.

Even when life looks like it is so far from what God promised, the apostle Paul taught us something important in  2 Corinthians 4:18 – So we fix our eyes not on what is seen but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. God’s promises for us are eternal and everlasting, from generation to generation. One thing I have learnt in my Christian journey is that no matter what happens and no matter how long it takes, in the end God will keep his promises to us.