What Vows Have You Made?

“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.’ But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one. 

Matthew 5:33-37

Have you ever been exposed to a negative behavior that affected you in a manner that caused you to make a vow?

By this I mean, have you ever vowed that someone would never hurt you again?  That you would never allow a certain thing to happen to you again?

A promise you made to yourself as a way to provide comfort?

You know the type of things:

• “I’ll never treat my children that way.”
• “I’ll never go to church again, when I get older.”
• “I’ll never make my kids work.”
• I’ll never let my husband/wife treat me like that.”

We think these type of oaths that we make to ourselves are harmless, but really it creates a hinderance in our lives.

It automatically prevents and hinders growth in that particular area of our lives.

When you swear to yourself, you cause yourself to go to the mere extreme.

Jimmy Evans said it best when he told the story of a man who had a home, piled high with soft drinks; soft drinks of every kind!  The reason this man had so many soft drinks at his home was because when they got to the root of it all, it turns out this man was never allowed to drink carbonated beverages as a kid and had made an inner vow to himself that no one would ever keep him from drinking these drinks again. Even further, no one would be able to tell him what to do again, and this affected his personal life in an adverse and negative manner.

Now this may seem like a silly story, but when we make inner vows, we truly can’t hear from God in that area.

A way to break out of this is to ask God to show you those areas in your life that you have made inner vows and repent and renounce those things.

If you need to forgive, forgive and be set free so that you can experience all that God has for you in your life.

Get rid of the things of old – old baggage and renew yourself.

Renew your mind, change your life.

Blessings,