The 1989 Armenian earthquake needed only four minutes to flatten the nation and kill thirty thousand people.
In his book, “When Christ Comes,” Max Lucado recounts a true story that came after that horrific earthquake.
Moments after the deadly tremor ceased, a father raced to an elementary school to save his son. When he arrived, he saw that the building had been leveled. Looking at the mass of stones and rubble, he remembered a promise he had made to his child: “No matter what happens, I’ll always be there for you.”
Driven by his own promise, he found the area closest to his son’s room and began to pull back the rocks.
Other parents arrived and began sobbing for their children.
“It’s too late,” they told the man. “You know they are dead. You can’t help.”
Even a police officer encouraged him to give up his task.
But the father refused. For eight hours, then sixteen, then thirty-two, thirty-six hours he dug.
His hands were raw and his energy gone, but he refused to quit.
Finally, after thirty-eight wrenching hours, he pulled back a boulder and heard his son’s voice.
He called his boy’s name, “Arman! Arman!” And a voice answered him, “Dad, it’s me!”
Then the boy added these priceless words, “I told the other kids not to worry. I told them if you were alive, you’d save me, and when you saved me, they’d be saved, too. Because you promised, ‘No matter what, I’ll always be there for you.’”
When I read that story, I was reminded of the promise we have been given from the Lord in Hebrews 13:5-6, “God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’ So we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?’” (NIV)
God Himself has promised that He would never leave or forsake us!
No matter what may come our way we can face it with confidence, knowing that we are never alone.
And when God makes a promise, He always keeps it!
A pastor visited an old man who was held fast to his chair by rheumatism, but he had his Bible open in front of him.
The minister noticed the word “Proved” was written continually in the margin.
The dear man had taken God’s Word and written his own experience in the margin.
Beside each promise as he found it come true in his own life, he had written “Proved.”
Likewise, we can take the Bible and stand on the promises that God has made to us.
Someone once calculated there are approximately 30,000 promises in the Bible.
If we were to take one promise each day and believe it for ourselves it would take over 82 years to claim each one.
Just imagine, God has provided us with enough promises to last a lifetime!
H. G. Salter once said, “Every promise is built upon four pillars: God’s justice and holiness, which will not allow Him to deceive; His grace or goodness, which will not allow Him to forget; His truth, which will not allow Him to change; and His power, which makes Him able to accomplish.”
Family members may hurt you; friends may betray you; spouses may divorce you; children may leave you… but God never will!
And, like the Armenian boy, you can believe the words of your Father: “I will come back and take you to be with me so that you may be where I am.” (John 14:3, NIV).
Why not trust Him today?

Rev. Doug Johnson is the senior pastor at Raven Assembly of God in Raven, Virginia.