Broken Vows

In today's world we see people making all kinds of promises they never intend on keeping. An election year has come and gone and we heard candidate after candidate make promises as to what he or she can do for the people and will do it they are elected to public office. We surely are not so gullible to believe all those false promises.

A minister found himself in a similar situation when he visited a wealthy member in the hospital who was literally on his deathbed and made this promise or vow to God. He said, “If God will heal me of my affliction, I will give the church one million dollars.” Miraculously the man was revived and within a few short weeks he was out of the hospital. One day, several months later, the man and his minister were seated outside of a hardware store chatting when the minister said, “You know, when you were in the hospital dying, you made a promise go give the church one million dollars if God healed you and we haven't got it yet.” The wealthy tycoon responded by saying, “Did I say that? That goes to show how sick I really was!”

Does that sound far fetched to you? It could be that we have made vows to God when we were in troublesome times and have yet to fulfill our promises. Therefore we cannot and should not poke fun at the wealthy tycoon who did not honor his promise. A vow is a solemn promise or pledge to fulfill some engagement hereafter, especially one made to God [Webster's New School & Office Dictionary].

According to God's word there are some features concerning vows. A vow must be voluntary (Deut. 23:21, 22); must be uttered (Deut. 23:23); once made, it is binding (Eccl. 5:4, 5); if honored, there are sometimes benefits (Gen. 28:20-22); if abused, it is condemned (Matt. 15:4-6).

Do you have any outstanding vows that you have made to God that still need to be honored? Remember that God stands firm on His promises and expects us to do the same. We know that God hates lying!

Be a vow keeper!
Eddie