Devotional Song: Go to this link - Please take the time to meditate on this powerful song with Steve Green, singing Find Us Faithful, … reminding us that we, as those vowed to faithfulness in our Lord, must let our “YES” be “YES” … finding us faithful all the days of our lives. … And then GO TO THIS LINK to see a video of the lyrics of Phillips, Craig, and Dean singing Let My Words Be Few, which is the truth from Ecclesiastes 5: 1-7 found by the link below.
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Highlight Passage: Joshua 9: 20… [Making vows before God is serious business!] … [NLT]
20 “… This is what we must do. We must let them live, for divine anger would come upon us if we broke our oath!”
Highlight Passage: Joshua, Chapter 9… GO TO THIS LINK … [NLT] …
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Reference Passage #1: Psalms 50: 16-23 … [God’s wrath awaits those who will not keep their vows to God.] … [NLT] GO TO THIS LINK ...
Reference Passage #3: Ecclesiastes 5: 1-7… [Talk is cheap! … If you make a vow – keep it!!] … [NLT] … GO TO THIS LINK ...
Reference Passage #3: Matthew 5: 33-37 … [Let your yes be yes and your no be no!] … [NLT] …GO TO THIS LINK ...
My Journal for Today: Today the photo I’ve attached should signal the title for my blog today, which is all about making and keeping vows before God. But how many times to people make marriage vows, many made by Christians in a church before and to God about being faithful to their spouse; and then the statistics show us that over 50% of them break those vows and the marriage ends in divorce. Yes, the message of my journaling today is that taking and making vows is serious business.
And even Jesus, our LORD, in His Sermon on the Mount, preached about the seriousness of making vows before God (see the link to Matthew 5: 33-37 above). And Solomon, later in his life, after repenting in the book of Ecclesiastes of how he had lived out much of his life in disobedience to God, wrote about letting our “words be few” but truthful when it comes to making and keeping promises before God. And that’s what both Steve Green and Phillips, Craig, and Dean sing about in the two songs to which I’ve linked any reader here today. I hope you’ve taken the time to view the videos, take in God’s truth in the lyrics, and hear these powerful songs.
But after hearing and meditating on those powerful lyrics and then taking in God’s strong words about His wrath coming down on those who make and then break their vows, what impact do these truths have on how we live our lives? Well, long ago I realized both the wrath of God and His faithfulness and mercy when I had to confess being unfaithful to my wife. That’s too long of a story to journal here; but the first 12 years of our marriage were a sham; and I had to come before God – and most certainly my dear wife – to confess and repent of my unfaithfulness to her and to God. And now, living out the last 37 years of our marriage in a repentant walk of faithfulness to my wife and to God, I’ve learned the reality of God’s merciful forgiveness and His blessing on those who keep their vows to Him and to each other.
So, … perhaps this short blog will cause any who read here to re-evaluate any promises you’ve made to others, and most certainly to God, which need confession and genuine repentance to set them right and to put you in line to receive God’s merciful forgiveness and love rather than His wrath.
Our choice … and enough said!!
My Prayer for Today … Oh, dear Lord, let my yes be my yes and my no be my no! … Amen
Blogger Note: Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online blog entitled Today God Is First [TGIF], authored by Os Hillman. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you’ll find a link to read Hillman’s TGIF blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.
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