40acts: Ready to ActSample

 Act 28: Promise Kept 

What would be on your wish list when choosing a friend? A good sense of humour? Having similar interests? How about someone who keeps their word? It’s easy to say, ‘I’ll pray,’ or ‘I’ll be there,’ and then completely forget to do it. What might you have promised in the past that you can follow through with today? Keeping a promise sends a powerful message: you matter to me.

It’s enough of a Christian cliché that they even knew it in the first century. ‘If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it’ (James 2:16)? This writer, James, knew we’d be tempted to say, ‘I’ll pray for you,’ or, ‘Bless you, I hope it all works out,’ and then leave and forget. When we give others empty words without actions, the Lord doesn’t look kindly on it. James asks us ‘what good is it?’ 

Because, as much as anything else, it’s a missed opportunity. We have so much to give. We have the endless resource of heaven to draw on. When we promise our help to a friend, or tell a stranger we’ll be right back, or give our word to a co-worker, there is a serious spiritual reality to it. Jesus takes it sombrely enough to put it in these terms: ‘All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one’ (Matthew 5:37). According to Jesus, dithering indecisively or turning back on a promise is nothing less than satanic!

This is about the purity of heart that comes when you will one thing. When we simply say ‘yes’ or ‘no’, we become like our Father in heaven who doesn’t change like shifting shadows. 

He gives his word, and he keeps it, every time. We can trust him. He hasn’t ever let a friend down, bailed, or failed to come through. Not once do we have to think, ‘I wonder if he means that,’ or, ‘What’s he really thinking here?’ Wouldn’t it be incredible, a beautiful and light way to live, a weight off our shoulders, if others could say that about us?