MEMORISE: When thou vowest a Vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed. – Ecclesiastes 5:4
BIBLE READING: Ecclesiastes 5:1-7
1 Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil.
2 Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.
3 For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool’s voice is known by multitude of words.
4 When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed.
5 Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.
6 Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it was an error: wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thine hands?
7 For in the multitude of dreams and many words there are also divers vanities: but fear thou God.
MESSAGE:
When God says He will do a thing, He will definitely do it because He does not joke with His words. The same is expected of us, His children, particularly when we make vows. Today, many Christians are stagnant in life because they failed to fulfil the vows they made to God in the past. In Judges 11 & 12, we read about Jephthah, whom the lsraelites begged to help them in their fight against the Ammonites. He knew the Ammonites were strong, and they needed a stronger ally to be able to confront them. Therefore, he sought God’s help and vowed that if he won the battle, he would sacrifice unto God the first thing that came out of his house to meet him. He won the battle, and on getting home, unfortunately, it was his only child who came out of his house first to welcome him.
One of the lessons I learned from Jephthah’s story is to check the state of my heart while making a vow to God. If my heart is aligned with God, I will make vows based on what He wants me to do, which will eventually bring me His reward and not regrets.
My dear child, do not be too hasty when making vows to people or God.
ACTION POINT:
Be careful when making vows.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR:
2 Chronicles 21:1-23:21 Romans 11:13-36