Commitment

Matthew 5:33-37 -- 33"Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.' 34But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God's throne; 35or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. 36And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. 37Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.


Commitment is a scary thing. Many men are accused of being afraid of commitment by their significant others. We have to swear in court that we are committing to a truthful testimony. Our wedding ceremony and baptism are both ceremonies of commitment. In the Bible there are three major covenants God made with his people in the Old Testament, The Abrahamic covenant, The Aaronic covenant, and The Mosaic Covenant. Then God created the most important covenant which is known as the New Covenant through Jesus. Church's generally ask people to become members, essentially stating a commitment to that body of the Kingdom. Various contracts are signed as commitments to fulfill an agreement, you can pinkie swear, even go so far as to exchange a drop of blood, and swear on your mother's grave but our actions speak so much louder.

Covenants and commitments were important to God so I assume they should be important to us. And yet, again, as humans we have assigned levels of importance to commitments by our actions. Most would tell you all commitments are important but our actions speak differently. On a scale of 1-10, 1 being not important and 10 being most important we have placed various situations. I'd say a situation falling on the '1' would be telling someone you'd pray for them and then not doing it. While most say this is important the act is often forgotten. Of course a commitment landing at '10' would be marriage and the actions of many show this is not really the case. 

Aside from the fact we are imperfect and thus cannot have perfect commitments we still continually walk away from them. How easy is it to tell a friend we'll show up to their party and then back out at the moment of a better offer or a desire to lounge at home? Or perhaps we hold out on committing, knowing there might be a better offer. I've learned I miss out on a lot of good times by waiting for better offers. Not only that but I tell those who invite me that I don't value them as much. 

Sometimes sticking to a commitment just sucks. Not all commitments are fun, but I believe we honor God by saying 'yes' or 'no' and sticking to it. By doing what you say you're going to do you create for yourself a reputation of being reliable and honest. If we know we can't or won't do what we say then we shouldn't say it or we should tell the person we can't make it. A lot of times we reject invitations or commitments and quickly follow it with excuses. Who cares why? What's important is our follow through. In my view, and experience on both sides, I feel holding out on committing is just as dishonoring as not doing what you say.  

I struggle with this often and am "training" (not trying) to get better at this.  May you honor God this week by saying 'yes' or 'no' and sticking with it.