Let my words be few

Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God.
God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.

When you make a vow to God, do not delay to fulfil it. He has no pleasure in fools; fulfil your vow. It is better not to make a vow than to make one and not fulfil it.  Do not let your mouth lead you into sin. Ecclesiastes 5: 2, 4 – 6

 When I first read these words from Ecclesiastes, I did not take into account the significance of making a hasty vow. I was more concerned about the problems of hasty words and the problems they can cause.  However I kept being drawn back to the matter of a vow and when I looked into this further, I realised that God views the keeping of vows as a very grave matter. There are many instances especially in the Old Testament of the importance of fulfilling your vow. 

Nowadays I think we rarely make vows in the same way but we can make hasty promises or deals with God and these are equally important matters. Words along the lines of ‘O God if only you will …… (fill in your own blank) then I will ….. (again fill in your own blank).’ Unfortunately what may happen is that when God keeps his side of the promise, we forget our part. We may be thankful that God has acted in the situation that was troubling us but we just move on.

God however has not forgotten and a vow or promise must be fulfilled; we must keep our part of the bargain.  Unfortunately it is very common nowadays that people do not keep their promises.  Even Christians cannot be relied upon to keep their word which is tragic.  We should be the most reliable and dependable people.

I hate it when people make promises to me that I know they cannot or will not keep. My philosophy is ‘if you don’t mean it, don’t say it.’ We are under no compunction to say or promise or vow anything, so we must be careful what we say or promise.

Broken promises and broken vows break trust and therefore damage relationships. I think that is why it is vital that we fulfil vows with God. Take Hannah, who made a vow with God that if he gave her a son, she would give the baby to serve the Lord. Suppose that when Samuel was born, Hannah reneged on her vow. She would always feel guilty and her relationship with God would be forever damaged. I know a pastor who said he would do something for me and didn’t. Next time I saw him, he could hardly look me in the face or greet me. Broken vows break relationships.

Making a vow with God is extremely important but so is a promise with someone else. I think that is why Jesus said, ‘Again, you have heard it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord’. But I tell you do not swear an oath at all … simply let your yes be yes and your no, no.  (Matthew 5: 33 – 37).

We must let our words be few when making vows and promises so we can keep them and maintain unity and trust with God and our family and friends.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Trust in the Lord

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3: 5 - 6

Fifteen years ago my dad wanted to celebrate his 80^th birthday by taking the whole family to South Africa. We were all so excited to be going to stay in a very nice hotel near Cape Town in the middle of the South African summer and to have Christmas in the sun.

About two weeks before we left, God said to me, ‘Give me the holiday’ which I was holding onto very tightly. He wanted me to place it in his open hands. I immediately said a loud and emphatic, ‘No!’ God asked me, ‘Why not?’ I replied immediately, ‘because I don’t trust you. You will take it away from me.’

I was so shocked but I know God was not. I thought I was a woman of faith but obviously I was not. God knew what I felt but it needed to be revealed to my stubborn, unbelieving heart. For the next two days a battle ensued with God just waiting quietly and lovingly and me trying hard to place this wonderful holiday in his hands. Could I trust God to do what was best because underlying all this was the thought that if you gave something good to God he would take it away?

Today I still find it shocking that I thought such an awful thing about my God who only wants and gives good things to his children.  However he knows best and we have to trust him. Abraham had a far harder test of faith. God asked him to sacrifice his one and only child on which so many promises hung. He trusted God that even if he had to kill his son, God would raise him from the dead (Hebrews 11: 19) so that the promise would be fulfilled. Of course as Abraham raised the knife to kill Isaac, a ram was provided but he was prepared to do as God had asked. Amazing faith!

So what happened to the holiday? Two days later, after a lot of giving and taking on my part, I finally managed to give our wonderful holiday into God’s hands and say, ‘I trust you.’ Of course we had the most fabulous holiday but I didn’t know that. I had to trust God. That was the start of many tests of faith but God has been so wonderful. Even when doors have closed that I so wanted to open, it has always been for the best. God’s love never fails.