Pay Your Vow.

We normally associate the work vow with marriage ceremonies. But the word itself means a solemn or serious promise. You know phrases like “his word is his bond” or “you can take that to the bank” or “she’s a woman of her word” are all about when someone promises to do something for you, then you know they will do it because they take their promises seriously. Now think about when you make promises and how easy it is to break them. Sometimes we break them because we’ve had to due to changing circumstances but most of them time we break our promises simply because we did not mean them seriously. In other words, we just gave our vow flippantly and didn’t really think about what we were actually promising to do or not do.

Little kids are the perfect example of how we should approach our promise keeping. My sister growing up was notorious was reminding everyone when they didn’t live up to their promise “but you promsied!” she’d exclaim. She took our promises seriously and expected us to keep them – come what may.

When we make promises to each other we often do with a silent understanding of “if I can” and we generally also understand there are things out of our control and allow for the breaking of promises since we are mere humans and can’t tell the future.

However, when we make and approach our promises and vows to God we must understand that we’ve made that vow to the Almighty and not our best friend or spouse. We pray and promise God things if He will answer our prayers. Often it a desperate attempt to barter or negotiate with God. But Solomon teaches us we must not approach our vows to God that way.

God expects us to keep our promises we’ve made it Him. And He expects us to do it speedily and not delay. God takes no pleasure in foolish promises. In fact, just a little later Solomon says do not let you mouth lead you to sin. Solomon is emphatic about this.

Pay your vows.

Have you made promises to God without thinking? Have you made rash vows that you never intended to keep? Have you promised God you gave Him your life only to try to hold out some of it for you?

Remember, when we pray we are approaching God in His throne room. He does not suffer foolish talk. Think about what you say and promise to God. He expects you to keep your word to Him. He does not tolerate fools and liars.