Broken Promises

Psa 18:30
The one true God acts in a faithful manner; the Lord’s promise is reliable; he is a shield to all who take shelter in him.

The last 2 days, victor have been messaging me saying that he wanted to leave the church due to conflicts between him and someone in the church. Also, there had been many misunderstandings and problems between him and some people in the church as well.

One of the issues that he raised was that a promise made to him by someone in the church that he felt was important was not fulfilled.

I do not know the details and will not attempt to pass any form of remark or judgement for it may not be the truth.

I'm not sure whether I should be blogging about this and I'll just pray that my words here will be guided by the holy spirit and do not seem hurtful to anyone that may be reading my blog.

Psa24:3-24:6
Who is allowed to ascend the mountain of the Lord?
Who may go up to his holy dwelling place?
The one whose deeds are blameless
and whose motives are pure,
who does not lie,
or make promises with no intention of keeping them.
Such godly people are rewarded by the Lord,
and vindicated by the God who delivers them.
Such purity characterizes the people who seek his favor,
Jacob’s descendants, who pray to him.

Our God is a God that honour promises. Not a single promise that he had made to Israel or to Moses was left unfulfilled and the verse above repeats that we as Christians should not make promises with no intention of keeping them and we should try our very best to honour every promise that we make to people and to God.

Definately, we are not God. We are only human that are prone to errors with limited time and limited capabilities and God knows about it.

I'm sure that at some point in your life, some one have disappointed you or betrayed your trust by not fulfilling his promise to you. It could be missing a dinner appointment or failing to produce a report that he promised to do.

The issue here I hope to address is not about how to honour your promises to God and people around you but how to make sure that you do not make empty promises to people.

I for one understands that when a promise held strongly by a person is unfulfilled, it could easily lead to conflict or resentment due to a sense of betrayal and lost hope. I am trying my best not to make commitments that I may be unable or unwilling to carry out. Instead of saying I will do it or I "promise", I do not wish to hurt people by saying something that I do not mean from the bottom of my heart or I may not fulfill due to constrains in time or capability.

I know that I do not have the capability or the heart for people around me now to make many promises that I know that I can and will keep. But I pray that God will soften my heart for the people around me to care for them and to value their needs more than mine.

Just now, Victor messaged me again and said again that he would like to leave the church. I just pray that God will guide him in the right path that he has meant for him and that as much as I would like him to join our church, I believe that there are some issues that he has to resolve at his old church. Whether or not he eventually becomes my spiritual brother in the church is of secondory importance as long as he finds himself closer to the lord.

It is often not of our will and ways but of God's will and timing to bring someone closer to them. All we can do as Christians is to be living testimonies of God in our lives and in other people's lives.

The rest is up to God.

Put on the helmet of salvation.
We have hope in our lives.
We have a destiny to fulfill for the Lord.
We are overcomers.