Promises

How do you see words? Are they just something used for communication? To get your point across? To express your emotions? I'm sure it's been at least one of these at some point. Something we need to consider is the power in words. We throw them around way too often, when we should be treating everything we say as a promise or a vow.

Ecclesiastes 5:1-7 talks about how we need to fear God and keep our vows; vows aren't something we ought to take lightly. A vow means: to promise something solemnly and seriously; or, a solemn promise to perform an act, or carry out an activity.

When you make a promise to God, don’t delay in following through, for God takes no pleasure in fools. Keep all the promises you make to him. It is better to say nothing than to make a promise and not keep it. -Ecclesiastes 5:4-5 (NLT)

An example is prayer.

When someone tells me they're going to pray for me, I'm expecting they mean they are going to put everything aside and REALLY invest into that prayer, even if its ten minutes! So long as its not one of those quick drive-by prayers: "OhLord, please keepthispersonsaferightnow, and ohwon'tYoublessthem... thankYou,InJesusName,AMEN." ... Wow. I'm sure God really feels the heart crying out in compassion for the person being prayed about in that kind of a prayer.

For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.-Hebrews 4:12 (NKJV, underlining mine)

I catch myself doing this too. I get a prayer request, I'll offer up a quick prayer and then I'll go about doing whatever I was doing... am I proud of it? No. Does it happen every time? No! There are times when someone sends me a prayer request and my heart becomes so burdened that I'm praying for the next hour. It doesn't happen often, only when I'm moved by such compassion for the person in the request; I believe it's God placing them on my heart. It's an intense cry to God. It's how I believe prayer should be (Psalm 18:6).

Am I saying ignore all the other prayer requests? No, but stop and really invest heart into a prayer... 5-10 minutes seems like such a long time, but when it's heartfelt it really isn't. It doesn't have to be hours long either (Matthew 23:14). All that really matters is not in the length of the time you pray, but the depth of the love in your heart as you pray (1 Corinthians 13, 1 Peter 1:22). Furethermore, we don't have to tell the person who sent it out "Ok, I'll pray" either; we can just pray (Proverbs 10:19, Matthew 6:5-6).


It's like saying "I promise I will pray for you" and when someone asks me to pray for them or another, I long to be at such a place with God that they know without asking if I say "Yes," they can expect me to mean it.

Just say a simple, ‘Yes, I will,’ or ‘No, I won’t.’ Anything beyond this is from the evil one.
-Matthew 5:37 (NLT)