James 5:12
New King James Version (NKJV)
12 But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath. But let your “Yes” be “Yes,” and your “No,” “No,” lest you fall into judgment.
My brother Gary’s sermon continues to bear fruit. This morning I was thinking about his story about his Father’s promise to give him something, a promise that was never fulfilled. Many of us harbor bitterness and resentment. And much of that resentment is directed toward our fathers over a serious matter of broken promises.
If we have been the victim of broken promises we need to recognize how that has affected us, forgive the promise breaker and move on. I can assure you the breaker of the promise has most likely long ago forgotten the incident. In fact, that’s probably why the promise was never kept. It usually isn’t intentional, we just forget. As parents a promise made in an off hand way which means little to us can be of tremendous importance to our child.
We need to consider the problem from the other side. Do we have unfulfilled promises laying out there. The victim of our promise breaking may say it’s no big deal, or that they’ve forgotten all about it. But to the extent it’s without our ability we need to make good on any promise we’ve made.
The root of the problem is that we make promises too lightly. Be careful in promising things. We tell little ones that they can have that candy “after school.” We say we’ll take them to that movie “another time.” We tell our spouse we won’t do this or that again. We promise we’ll turn off the game next time they want us for something. We may have no intention of keeping our word at the time, bad on us. We may have the best of intentions, but don’t consider the matter serious enough to focus on keeping the promise… bad on us as well.
Before we spend too much time feeling sorry for ourselves for the promises to us which have not be kept; let’s spend some time considering how we have hurt others by failing to let our “yes” be “yes and our ‘no” “no.”
Be faithful and honest and
Be blessed.
Nick
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