Today’s Podcast
Today’s Bible reading plan:
Read it in a year – Isaiah 12-17
see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)
Today’s Devotional
Matthew 5:33-37
Jesus: You know that God expects us to abide by the oaths we swear and the promises we make. But I tell you this: do not ever swear an oath. What is an oath? You cannot say, “I swear by heaven”—for heaven is not yours to swear by; it is God’s throne. And you cannot say, “I swear by this good earth,” for the earth is not yours to swear by; it is God’s footstool. And you cannot say, “I swear by the holy city Jerusalem,” for it is not yours to swear by; it is the city of God, the capital of the King of kings. You cannot even say that you swear by your own head, for God has dominion over your hands, your lips, your head. It is He who determines if your hair be straight or curly, white or black; it is He who rules over even this small scrap of creation. You need not swear an oath—any impulse to do so is of evil. Simply let your “yes” be “yes,” and let your “no” be “no.”
What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?
The election year will start up in earnest now. Candidates with spew their rhetoric across the airwaves and meet with thousands to vow what they will do if we will just put them in office. Well, we’re on president number 45. None have kept their vows yet. Should we expect number 46 to keep his or hers? I don’t know about you, but I’m not going to hold my breath. If I were a betting man, I’d bet none of them will keep their promises.
It’s important to God, though. He says so in these words. When we make an oath He expects us to keep it. But more than that, He expects our simple yes to mean yes and our simple no to mean no. But we’ve gotten really good at double-speak. Have you noticed? Just add enough words and you talk yourself into or out of just about anything. Instead, Jesus says use fewer words, get your point across, and mean what you say.
A lot of our problem in making promises is we do so about things we have no control over. Just stop and think about what you really control. You don’t control the weather, and how does that affect promises you might make to someone? You don’t control traffic, and how does that affect your promises? You don’t control the finacial state of the country, so how will that affect your promises? You don’t really control your own health except to a very small extent by what you eat, the sleep you get, and the exercise you do. So how will you health affect the promises you’ve made?
You certainly can’t control anyone else’s actions or emotions. You might think you can, but people really can do exactly what they want to do. They can refuse to take your directions. They might suffer severe consequences as a result, but they can choose to accept those consequences instead of doing what you say. When you think about it, you really have control of very little. And you can make promises only about the things that you can really control. So…
Jesus really makes sense when He says don’t make oaths. You might not be able to keep them and then your reputation suffers for it. You’ve heard the addage, “Let your word be your bond.” Today, we need hundred-page contracts because as a society too many of us have proven our word is not our bond anymore. Jesus says if you’re going to follow Him, you better start letting your word mean as much as those contracts again. He’s serious about keeping promises. Look at the promises He’s kept. They start in Genesis when He promised Man would crush the serpant’s head. He looked ahead to the cross and saw His victory over sin as He gave Himself as the perfect sacrifice to pay the penalty for us.
God has never broken a promise He has made. His word is full of them. Some He’s completed for His chosen people. Some are waiting for those who follow Him. Some await the end of time when He comes to take His bride home with Him for eternity. But God has and will never break His promises. We wants us to follow in His footsteps and do the same. “Simply let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes,’ and let your ‘no’ be ‘no.’”
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