Thursday, January 22, 2015
A line from a contemporary Christian song, which we also sing at church, says: “So remember your people / Remember your children / Remember your promise, oh God.” To me, it is a picture of our general way of thinking, namely that we not only depend on God keeping His promises to us, we expect Him to. Pastors get more than slightly miffed, although they won’t always let it be known, when some of his members who haven’t been faithful to him, scold him when they feel he is unfaithful to them. Even so, aren’t we all a little bit like that, especially in regards to promises? We make it a point to remind God about the promises He has made in His Word to us, but how often does He, or someone else, remind us of the promises we have made to Him?
Solomon wrote: “When you make a vow to God, do not delay in fulfilling it. He has no pleasure in fools; fulfill your vow. It is better not to vow than to make a vow and not fulfill it.” (Ecclesiastes 5:4-5) I venture to say that most Christians are aware of this truth ,that it is a foolish thing to promise God anything, yet many keep doing it anyway. I bet pastors can remember a good number of his members who, throughout the years, have made certain vows to God but have forgotten them with time. If pastors can remember these un-kept promises and those who made them, how can we even think that God will forget them?
Since this is not an uncommon occurrence, I suspect that one or more of you who are reading today’s blog, fall into this category. All genuine ministers of God’s Word preach about Hell from time to time, but some of them preach it like they’re hoping people will get there someday. I am not one of them but I will plead with you today if you have made a vow to God you have not fulfilled, to at least make a sincere effort to do so. I am not referring to rash and outlandish promises; God knows most people can’t climb the highest mountain or save an entire continent for Jesus. So if you made such a wild promise, I’m pretty sure He didn’t take you too seriously in the first place. No, I am referring to those where people generally promise God they will be more faithful to Him, become better examples to their family and friends, and follow Him much closer than before. If that is you, today will be the perfect time to get back on track and one sure way to please and honor God. C’mon, you can do it.
Memory verses for the week (Psalm 103:13-14) “As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; for He knows how we are formed, He remembers that we are dust.”
Note: I was glad to hear from some of you that you enjoyed yesterday’s little bible quiz. If you did not ace it, don’t feel bad because I didn’t either. It was brought to my attention that question # 13 had two right answers. I said Luke, but Mark would have been correct also because he was not one of the original 12 Disciples. What was I thinking? Let me know if you wouldn’t mind getting more quizzes from time to time. I know I enjoyed it.
