Broken Promises and Broken Resolutions

How many of us have ever had someone make a promise to us, only to have them break it? How did it make you feel? How many of us have made a promise to someone, only to break it? How about New Years resolutions? How many New Years resolutions have we started, only to break them within a month?

 What about a promise to God or a resolution to be more committed to God? How many of us have made a promise to God, or made a resolution to be more committed to God in someway, only to not come through on what we said we would do? How did it make you feel? Did you get that little thought in your head that told you were no good, that you let God down? Maybe you made a promise to God in someway hoping it would keep something bad from happening to you. But, even though you tried really hard you couldn't keep your end of the promise, and now you fear that what you feared would happen to you, will happen to you.

Though making a promise to God is noble, often it's not required. In fact, the promises we make to God are things that even though they are good, they can often be things that God would never ask us to make a promise about.

Another challenge when we make a promise to God is that often we try to fulfill it with our own self-will. You see, our self-will can only take us so far, but when we are empowered by God's Spirit, the action we were hoping to start or stop will be accomplished.

Though making a promise to God sounds very religious, often it produces results that we don't desire. If we don't keep the promise we will feel guilty. We will begin to feel that we are not good enough for God. We may feel that the spiritual life is not for us. On the other hand, if we keep the promise, this can lead to feelings of self righteousness. When we start going down that road, we begin to think we are accomplishing the action we desired in our own power and strength. So we begin to trust in ourselves and our strength more than God's power and strength.

Well if you have ever made a promise to God, only to break it, or made a resolution to do more for God only to not do it, I have good news for you. God still loves you. He loved you before you made the promise.  He loved you while you made the promise, and He still loves you after you break the promise.

Now if God is wanting to bring about some change in your lifestyle, I'm not encouraging you not to do it. By all means get closer to God, do what you feel God is asking of you. But what I am trying to tell you, is that you don't have to make a promise. As I mentioned earlier, often a promise can set us up for failure. Instead, ask God to empower you to be able to do what He has laid upon your heart. That's right, that desire to get closer to God in some way is from Him. You didn't come up with the idea on your own, He put the idea in you. The problem is that we try to accomplish it in our own strength instead of His.

 What we need to remember is that our standing with God is not based upon our keeping our promise to Him, but in Him keeping His promise to us. His Word shows us that He remains faithful to His Word.

 If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.
                                        2 Timothy 2:13


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