Sun 17 Jan

The tradesman says he will be there at 9am! You promise to pray for a friend going through a difficult time. You go guarantor your son's car loan. You tell your children you will get them an ice-cream after you have finished mowing the lawn. We recognize each of these scenarios, for we have been caught up in them ourselves. How many ways do we go back on our word? How many times do we break our promises and we don't even realize we've done it? Jesus, in these few verses in the Sermon on the Mount looks at honouring our word, keeping our word. We have already looked at honouring life and honouring our marriages. Jesus is not against the taking of oaths or making vows. There are plenty of times in the Scriptures where men and women of God took oaths. Hezekiah made a vow to serve the Lord, if his life was given a few extra years to live. When Jesus was on trial in an unjust court situation, He was under oath. What Jesus is concerned about is honouring the oaths and vows we have made. In other words be men and women of our word. Or in Jesus' words, "Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes', and your 'No', 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one."What is your word like? Can people take you at your word? We can be thankful that we can take God at His word. What God says can be trusted. If God says He loves you, then He does. If God says He is with you always, He will be! Take God at His word! Like our heavenly father, be people of our word!