Will You Give This to Me?
Pastoral | October 23, 2025 | By: Joe Bubar
I love working with numbers and statistics. I'm a total amateur, but I have created dozens of Excel files over the years to keep track of all kinds of mostly useless information, like a list of my top 1,000 favorite songs, and all the times I've ran or hiked or ridden a bike in the last 10 years (and how far and how fast and how high, etc.). And—here's a silly one—a ranked list of the college football programs with the largest fanbases in the country (only estimates, of course, but last time I crunched the numbers, Texas and USC were #1 and #2 – I’m guessing that must have been about 20 years ago!).
So I was instantly interested when I heard my pastor friend, Tom, from Iowa mention that there are 7,000 promises recorded in the Bible. That's a lot of promises! Now, of course, not each one is unique, but out of about 31,000 verses in the whole Bible, that's more than one promise every five verses. And not all the promises are comforting. According to Tom, suffering is promised 51 times, and healing is only promised 31 times!
There are 7,000 promises recorded in the Bible.
He went on to mention that in the 89 chapters of the four Gospels, there are recorded 339 questions that Jesus asked, and 107 of those are found in just the 24 chapters of Luke. That's more than four questions per chapter. Many of them are rhetorical, such as:
"Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?"
"Can a blind man lead a blind man?"
and, "What did you go out into the desert to see—a reed swayed by the wind?"
But some are very direct, provocative, and personally challenging:
"Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?"
"Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’?
and, "Why do you call Me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?"
My friend concluded our conversation by saying that, in his estimation, after considering all of Jesus' questions and teaching (particularly His emphasis on 'believing' in John's Gospel) in addition to the Apostles' teaching (and specifically Peter's admonishment to "cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you"), the most important question Jesus asks each of us is, "Will you give this to Me?"
This struck me as a very personal, down-to-earth way of asking, "Do you trust Me?" or "Do you believe in Me?" But Tom said that "Will you give this to Me?" is a less abstract, more confrontational and specific way of getting to the core issue of the moment—whatever it may be for each of us.
This struck me as a very personal way of asking, "Do you trust Me?"
Our discussion has often come to mind when I'm faced with a challenging situation or a perplexing decision. Typically, I want to "be responsible" and "work it out for myself," or even "save the day" and then "give God all the glory" for what I accomplished!
That's probably not the worst way to approach life, but I've come to the conclusion that it's certainly not the best. For, "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me," but "without Him we can do nothing."
What are you struggling with lately? Have you given it over to Jesus? Will you?
Joe Bubar
Senior Music Director
Is there something in your life that you need to let go of? Our Freedom resources offer strategies to help you release what’s holding you back so you can experience all God has for you!
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