Saturday 17 Jun 2023

June 17: Matthew 5:33-37

Key Verse: Matthew 5:37
All you need to say is simply “Yes,” or “No”; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

Devotion:
How many times have you been let down by someone who has sworn an oath to you only to break that oath under pressure or over time? Our society seems to be rife with people who are quite content with promising to do something and never getting round to doing it, often simply promising so they can gain some reward before breaking the promise. So, by reading this here we can see this is not something new – it may be there are more people willing to break promises, but it has been going on since time began!

God has seen this trait in humans forever because we are easily led away by evil thoughts planted by the original evil one and harvested just when we don’t want them to be! The devil continues to try and take us away from God by making us do things which we ought not to and then casting the seed of doubt in our minds so we turn away from God before we ask for His forgiveness.

The advice here is to not go there and make promises which you know there is a chance you will break in the future. Simply say you will try to do such and such or find another way of supporting the person you are going to make the promise to. Most of our promises are to support another person in one way or another, something which is righteous – unless it is taken away later!

We do like to attach our promises to either loved ones past or present or to God. But are we really thinking about the consequences when we do go back on our word; are we thinking about what that open up to our loved one or to the people we are promising. God shows us how important promises are and has always delivered on His promises; but He also knows our weaknesses and does not want us to be burdened by the consequences of broken promises...

Points to Ponder:
How often do you swear by an oath?

How often do you think of the consequences of said oaths?