Promises, Promises

Have you ever made a promise and then failed to live up to it?

When you make a vow to God, do not delay fulfilling it; for he has no pleasure in fools. Fulfill what you vow. It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not fulfill it.  - Ecclesiastes 5:4-5

Some promises may be hard to keep.  I get that.  We have every intention of committing to a cause or sticking with a program and then reality happens and we just lose the desire or passion for it.

We can think of dozens of reasons or excuses for our change of heart, but in the end, we have failed to fulfill a vow or promise.  We were not as committed as we thought.

We may do this to each other and think nothing of it, but what if we did the same to God?

When we choose to accept a call to ministry, we make a vow to God to follow the path we believe He has prepared for us.  It is the same as saying, "I hear you and want to do your will, wherever that leads."

But what if it leads to places we do not want to go?

Perhaps a better question is what do we do when it leads us to the places we fear to go?

There is an excellent chance that our call to serve will do just that.  It will bring us into close proximity with our fears and uncertainties.  For it is for our benefit as well as for the benefit of others that we are called.

I have found that each new experience I encounter in His name is like that.  They change me in some way, and that change inspires and frightens.

They open me to new challenges and to delve deeper into the lives of those I come in contact with in my ministry.

The more involved I become, the more I see how little I understood when I set out down this road.  But the amazing thing is each new step, each encounter brings with it a renewal of my faith and a deeper understanding of what I am capable of doing.

So, the vow becomes strengthened as the challenges are met.  It is like those strength and endurance competitions we see on TV.  The more challenging the obstacle, the more confidence the competitors get from tackling it.

Keeping our vows, therefore is not about living up to a promise, but it is about living into our faith.  The more we push forward, the more we see what God has in store for us.  If we sit back and wait for it, we will be blind and the vision will disappear.

So, go for it in faith.  He will provide.

More to come...