Again, you have heard that it was said to our ancestors,  You must not break your oath, but you must keep your oaths to the Lord.  But I tell you, don’t take an oath at all: either by heaven, because it is God’s throne; or by the earth because it is His footstool; or by Jerusalem, because it is the city of the great King.  Neither should you swear by your head, because you cannot make a single hair white or black.  But let your word ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and your ‘no’ be ‘no’.  Anything more than this is from the evil one.  Matthew 5:33-37 HCSB

My pastor always says that when he has one finger pointed at us, he has 3 pointed back at him.  This is how I write this today.  We live in a world where commitments don’t mean a whole lot.  Everything is fast paced.  We all have a lot to do.  I used to want to be helpful so I would agree to do things only to realize that I had let my big mouth overload me.  I would end up resenting the fact that I had offered to do these things because I simply just didn’t have time.  Or even worse, I would agree to do something and then totally forget about it.  I try to do things a little differently these days.  If its something I don’t have time to do, then I simply don’t volunteer and if I am asked I politely explain that I am unable to commit to that.  Now if I feel that God is leading me to do something or I feel that I really should do something then I ask the person to please remind me or I try to set an alert on my phone, write myself a note, or do something to be sure that I don’t forget.

I’m sure we have all been there at one time or another.  Someone offers to do something nice for us, we don’t ask, they offer.  Anyway, we think, “great”.  We look forward to it and they fail to come through and we are disappointed.  Wouldn’t it have been so much better if they hadn’t said anything and then if they could come through to have just surprised us.  That way we wouldn’t have expected anything, right?

In this scripture passage, Jesus is telling the disciples that they should not even take an oath or make a promise, however you want to say it.  The reason is that none of us know what the future holds.  So I could tell you that I am going to do something tomorrow but tomorrow is not guaranteed for me or anyone else.  Just this past week, I agreed to do something for our church on Wednesday, but instead I found myself in the doctor’s office with the flu.  So much for that plan.  I am sure you have heard it said that if you want to make God laugh, just make plans.

The bottom line here is if we tell someone that we are going to do something, then we should make every possible effort to do it.   It shouldn’t just be empty promises.  We should do all within our power to keep true to our word.

When we keep our word it makes us persons of integrity.  It makes us persons that others can put their trust into.  When we spout off a bunch of empty promises but then never come through, well it just makes us a bunch of blowhards that no one really listens to anyway.

So what will it be for you today?  We have no control over the future but we can do our best to let our yes be yes and our no be no.  This scripture passage clearly states that any more than this is from the evil one.  When we go on about what we are going to do for others, it allows pride to creep in.  Matthew 6:1 warns us to be careful not to practice our righteousness in front of others, otherwise we will have no reward from our father in heaven.

I think that we get into trouble when we offer to do nice things for people.  We do this because we want them to think highly or favorably of us.  But then when we fail to come through it has the opposite effect.  So if you want to do something nice for someone, don’t offer, just do it.  If someone comes to you asking for your help, then a simple yes or no will suffice.  If you feel that you should be able to help and if God is leading you to help them, then say yes.  If you feel that it is more than you can do or that God is not leading you to do this, then just say no.  It’s perfectly okay to say no.  There is a reason that we have that word in our vocabulary, you know.  Don’t be afraid to use it.  People will think a lot more highly of you if they can trust what you say.

Have a great weekend!