The Promise

The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

– 2 Peter 3:9

Thanks to the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation), the money you deposit at a member bank — up to at least $250,000 — is protected if that bank fails. But it wasn’t always that way. 

During the Great Depression, thousands of banks failed after anxious depositors tried to withdraw their funds en masse, and the life savings of millions of Americans was wiped out in the process. The FDIC’s launch in 1933 helped restore confidence in the nation’s banking system. So, for over 90 years, depositors have trusted the federal government’s promise that they won’t lose a penny in their FDIC-insured accounts.

This ironclad guarantee continues to stabilize our nation because citizens know they can literally bank on it. There’s no need for accountholders to panic or lose sleep, regardless of the headlines. And that’s a comforting thought in these tough economic times. But perhaps we should find much greater solace in the motto that’s printed on every dollar bill:

In God We Trust

It’s in the Bible that we find thousands of reasons why. For example, the Lord assured the Israelites who had escaped Egypt that he would drive out the nations before them and give them the Promised Land. God also promised to one day re-gather his scattered people (the Jews) from around the globe. About 2,500 years later in 1948, he did just that through the emergence of the State of Israel. And no doubt our Creator kept his greatest promise through the birth of the world’s Savior (Jesus) in an obscure outpost of the Roman Empire.

Why does this matter?

Jesus’ death and resurrection defeated the power of sin and death, and they also gave Believers the power to live victorious, Spirit-filled lives. In these uncertain times, it’s nice to have something worthwhile that we can take to the bank. And the best example is the promise of everlasting life through our faith in Jesus:

"I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish,” we read in John 10:28. “No one will snatch them out of my hand."

The Bible is full of promises made … and promises kept. And unlike those thousands of unstable Depression-era banks, every one of them is rock-solid and utterly reliable.