Promises

Promises.

Have you made promises? Have people made promises to you? I know I've made some promises. I haven't always kept my promises. I've forgotten, or sometimes simply ignored the promise. At the same time, people have broken their promises to me. It's a pretty awful feeling when someone you trust breaks a promise you were counting on. I've been reading through the Bible and I've come across some really good verses about promises. :)

"It is a trap to dedicate something rashly and only later to consider one’s vows." - Proverbs 20:25

If you make a promise, you shouldn't just do it on a whim. Think about it. Can you really keep that promise? Of course anything is possible with God, but you shouldn't make promises that you can't keep.

"When you make a vow to God, do not delay to fulfill it. He has no pleasure in fools; fulfill your vow. It is better not to make a vow than to make one and not fulfill it." - Ecclesiastes 5:4-5

When you make a promise to God, you shouldn't be slow about carrying out the promise. And, as this verse says, you shouldn't make the promise if you can't keep it. Even though this verse is talking about promises to God, the same can be applied to people. If you promise someone something you should carry out the promise soon as you can, and if you don't know for sure that you can keep the promise you shouldn't make it to start with.

All this said, you should be really careful about what you promise. After all, we're human and we are more than likely going to break more than one promise sometime during our life. However, there is One who we can always count on to keep His promises. He will never fail to carry out what He promises. That is Jesus Christ. There are some AWESOME promises that He's made to us. :) One of my favorite is the following.

 “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” - Hebrews 13:5b

People might make promises. They might not keep them. But our awesome God will ALWAYS keep his promises. You can count on Him! :)