Keeping Our Word
May 12, 2022
Devotions;
““Again, you have heard that the ancients were told, ‘ You shall not make false vows, but shall fulfill your vows to the Lord.’ But I say to you, take no oath at all, neither by heaven, for it is the throne of God, nor by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet, nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Nor shall you take an oath by your head, for you cannot make a single hair white or black. But make sure your statement is, ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no’; anything beyond these is of evil origin.” Matthew 5:33-37 NASB2020
When we do not honor our word but instead lie it affects our faith. We also see God as one who does not keep His word. We then have no confidence in God or His word because we think that God is just like us. So when we are inconsistent with what we say we think that God is also inconsistent. We must be totally confident that God cannot lie. Paul tells us in Ephesians 4 that the old man lied but the new creation should not lie because it is inconsistent with who we are, children of God.
“You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies.” John 8:44 NASB2020
The father of lies is the devil and when we lie or do not keep our word we are acting just like the devil. This is the devil’s nature not God’s nature. When we are born again we are given God’s nature. Lying then is inconsistent with who we are. We should not need any greater assurance that our word is true beyond our simple yes or no. We need to craft our words carefully to express what our intention is. If we think we might be able to do something that someone asks us to do we should not say that we will definitely do it but that we would try. If we do not have any intention of doing what someone asks we should politely decline and not say that we will just to get them off our back.if we commit ourselves to meet someone we should try our best to be on time and fulfill our commitment. In doing this we begin to see that God will do exactly what He has said He will do and not try to wiggle out of a commitment. If we have something come up that is in conflict with our commitment we need to talk to the person with whom we made our original commitment to see if they will allow us to change the commitment if not we keep the original commitment even if it causes damage to us.