DO YOU MEAN IT?

When was the last time you broke a promise? Okay, maybe it wasn’t a promise, maybe you just agreed to something that you didn’t actually intend on following through with. Men: maybe you casually acknowledged that you would get to that task that your wife has repeatedly asked to do, but still haven’t actually chosen to do it in your mind. Women: maybe you told that friend that you would get ahold of them, but don’t honestly believe that you will reach out any time soon.

Let’s be real

Sometimes it’s just easier to just go along with something in the moment rather than risk offense by being honest about your intentions. I know if I’m not careful, it’s far too easy to flippantly give my word about something without ever actually committing to it in my heart.

In a day and age where “giving your word” is about as meaningful as giving a high-five, we’ve lost track of what it means to be bound by the words that we say. We’ve discarded the power of words and ignored the oath that committing to something verbally puts us under.

Words are important to God

Recently my pastor put it this way: “If you want to be remarkable, you must be dependable.”

About 2,000 years ago, Jesus put it this way: “Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.” (Matthew 5:37)

Unlike the pharisees that he is rebuking in this passage, Jesus didn’t need to swear by anything, or to add any additional meaning on top of His ‘Yes’. His ‘Yes’ means yes, and his ‘No’ means no. He is dependable.

God is Dependable

One of the most powerful and overwhelming attributes of God is His Dependability. God is remarkable precisely because he is dependable. He is faithful in every way. How many verses throughout the Bible praise His faithfulness? They praise the fact that He always is and that He always will be ... that despite any circumstance we can count on Him to be there.

Compare that to the world we live in today. Is there anything close to this dependability? I see a lot of empty promises, a lot of un-dependable men letting their wives and families down, a lot of friendships broken because they couldn’t be relied on. It’s actually quite unremarkable.

Are we anywhere close to being that dependable? By making sure our ‘Yes’ means yes and our ‘No’ means no, we are reflecting the work of God in our life. By being dependable, we are putting the dependability of our God on full display.

Think and Pray

We can show others how to be dependable, only because we have the concrete example of dependability to model after. In other words, we let God’s remarkability make us remarkable.

Lord, help me today to be conscious of the moments when I might say something I don’t really mean. I want to follow through on everything I say, because that’s what You do. Thank You for being a God I can depend on and thank You for shaping me into a person other’s can depend on. Amen.

Zach Bowers is a writer for WTLW TV-44, a Christian television station serving Ohio and Indiana through quality Christian and family-centered programming. Its mission is to bring the Gospel of Jesus to the lost and hurting through the power of broadcast media. Read this and other articles at https://wtlw.com/wordsmatter-remarkable-must-dependable