And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. Simply let your "Yes" be "Yes," and your "No," "No"; anything beyond this comes from the evil one. - Matthew 5:36-37
Imagine for a moment that you are living in Jesus' time. It is before Jesus has begun His public ministry. He is a carpenter in your local town of Nazareth. You have asked Jesus to make a table for you. You're on a deadline and you must have it in a week. You agree on the price of $100 for the table and the date of one week for completion. A week later you arrive to pick up the table. You lay your money down on the table and Jesus says, "Mr. Johnson, I am sorry but the table is not ready. I ran into complications. Also, I can no longer honor the price I gave you. It is now $150 instead of $100."
Two years later you hear about this same Jesus who is preaching to the local townspeople. How are you going to view this Jesus? You probably won't give much credence to His message because of your personal experience. Our lives have an ability to reinforce the message we stand for, or they can violate it and make it totally ineffective. This literally happens all over the world in different settings with Christian workplace believers. Our message becomes ineffective because we have not done what we said.
I know people who, when they tell me they plan to do something, I can expect them to follow through about 50 percent of the time. I am sure you have had the same experience. Words and commitments are made with little meaning behind those words. However, I know others who will follow through almost every time. The only time they don't is when something falls outside their control. I quickly learn whose words have substance behind them.
There are times when we are unable to perform or deliver what we promised due to outside influences. The key to turning these potentially negative circumstances into a witness for Christ is communication. If we are unable to pay a bill on time, we must communicate with those we owe and make a good faith effort to resolve it within our means. In these cases, God's purposes are being performed as well if we seek to do the right thing.
Do your words mean anything to those who hear them? Do you make commitments and fail to follow through on them? What would others say about how you follow through? Ask the Lord today to show you how you are doing in this area. You might even want to ask three people who are the closest to you how you fare in this area.
I agree 100% Rev....
When I was a young man my Dad told me something....
He said, "Boy":
I always new when my Dad started a sentence with Boy one of two things was in the wind. Either I was in trouble for something or he was going to impart some words of wisdom my way.
My Dad seldom lectured us, no- he never did that, but when my Father talked we all listened.
I being the oldest was the recipient more that the others...
I was perhaps thirteen and never forgot them or ever deviated from them..
He said, "Boy, If your words no good, you're no good" "Remember that."
I never forgot it and I have lived my life by it..If I make a promise I keep it, period, regardless of the consequences...
For if anyone that you ever meet mentions Leep-regardless of whether they like me ot not, they will tell you, "well if that hardheaded, red headed Irish son of a b....th tells you something, you can rely on it."
Perhaps not the most ringing endorsement you could find, but nevertheless, its from my Dad and I'm proud to have lived by that my entire life..
Take care Rev....
In case I heven't mentioned it before, I read all that you contribute here and I appreciate all your insight..
Leep Out:
P.S. all you guys give me a sense of being grounded and I feel I am a part of a real family- a family in Christ...
When you have to make some kind of "legal declaration", if they put a bible in front of you and ask you to "swear on it" or "take an oath" what do you say?
A couple times I have been in this position and I say I will not. They have said "Oh if you do not believe in the Bible you can "affirm" that your statement is true and not swear on the Bible." And I say "It is because I do belive in the Bible that I will not swear on it. My statement is true."
Thanks to both of you, but I didn't write that, I copied that from Prime Time With God. I just wanted to share that tit bit with my brothers on here. I do write a daily devotional on my website,www.poweroffaith.us however I am not as good a writer as O.S. Hillman.
Being a man of your word is so important. I am a commercial general contractor and when a sub-contractor or doesn't abide by his word I fire him. I don't shop bids, when a sub give me a price that is the price I use. I have some subs that have been with me for 10 years, because they are men of their words and I trust them. Bob<><
I would of replied Rev....but I fail in that area when promising stuff to my wife so I didn't feel worthy to reply. Nothing against you my friend.
Chuck7
Oaths and pledges are another thing that I shy away from. To me it's a risky thing to swear yourself to something before God. As I am married , I can't say that I won't swear myself but when I do as far as I'm concerned it's etched in stone.
Most folk know that if I say I will do something or be somewhere, or not repeat what has been told to me, then I will honor that. With my wife and kids, even more so because I expect and recieve the same from them.
__________________ And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.
How Good Is Your Word?
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