Tuesday, April 1, 2008

SCRIPTURE OF THE DAY: Judges 11:29-40

PSALM OF THE WEEK: Psalm 18:1-19

HYMN OF THE DAY: #545 “He Leadeth Me: O Blessed Thought” http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/h/l/hleademe.htm

VERSE OF THE DAY: “For I have opened my mouth to the Lord and I cannot take back my vow.” Judges 11:35b NRSV

 

A hasty vow to the Lord cost Jephthah greatly.  God does not require vows.  God wants us to be straight and honest (see Matthew 5:33-37) and to do his will.  There is no room for “bargaining” with God.  God doesn’t want it and we won’t get anything with it we wouldn’t have gotten anyway.  All we need to do is to seek God’s will.  God will take care of us.  Too often people are quick to try to make a “one way bargain” with God during times of trial or conflict and then they regret it. Had Jephthah just done what God wanted, without making his foolish vow, he would have defeated the Ammonites anyway and this story would have had a happy ending instead. We can get our own “happy endings” by just following the Lord’s will and not trying to bargain to get our own way.

 

PRAYER: O Lord of my Life; help me to just follow your way and you’re your will.  Help me to avoid the temptation to offer bargains that you neither want nor need.  I want to do your will, not mine. Amen.

 

See you in Church Sunday,

Pastor Sandy

 

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