Commit to Commit

Faithfulness is a word that means adherence , devotion to a person or and idea or a cause.   It means that you are steadfast in your affection and diligence to someone or something. In short, if you say you are going to do something you do it. Faithfulness is easier said than done.  How many times have we said we will faithfully follow a diet, or exercise or read our Bible daily or tithe on a regular basis.  It’s a difficult thing to do at times, to be faithful. 

But what happens if we aren’t faithful to our commitments?

Obviously, a lack of faithfulness to a spouse is huge.  Divorce is rampant in our culture and a good number of divorces, 80% I’m told involve infidelity.  What a sad statement on commitment that makes. 

At Church each year we have a pledge campaign where you pledge how much you will be tithing each week or month.  The budget for the entire church year is based on these pledges. What would happen if people filled out pledge cards and then for whatever reason decided not to tithe what they “promised”.  Or Committees at work or Church or school.  What would happen if one person decided to blow off their “job” on the committee.  

God has called on each of us to be faithful to him , in our worship of him.  In return there are many many promises in the Bible of God’s faithfulness to us.  Psalm 89:8 says You are mighty O LORD and your faithfulness surrounds you. Psalms 33:4  for the word of the Lord is right and true.  He is faithful in all he does. Those two verses give us a model of God’s faithfulness to aspire to. And we don’t even have to be faithful in our commitment to God for him to be faithful to usRomans 3: 3-4  says what if some did not have faith?  Will their lack of faith nullify God’s faithfulness?  Not at all.

When we make a commitment its very easy at first to stick to, or adhere to that commitment. It is easy to faithfully do what we say we will do. But as time goes on, it gets a little harder and little harder sometimes to do what we say we will do.  To be faithful to our promise. For lent I gave up 30 minutes of laziness.  My Lenten promise was to walk or exercise 30 minutes a day no matter what. I’ve done that now for 22 days in a row.  But it hasn’t been easy.  There have been a lot of days that I just want to get off work, go home, put on my pj’s, kick back in my recliner and do nothing. But a promise is a promise and because the promise I made was to God and not just to myself, it’s a lot easier to keep.

 Any parent who has bought their child a pet with the promise from the child of I will take care of him everyday, I will feed and water and clean up after will tell you that the commitment usually dwindles after a few weeks, or days.  I remember Andy begging for a guneau pig.  I like dogs.  That’s about it. To have anything resembling a rodent in my house was a real stretch for me.  But Mo was actually cute. He was furry like a bunny.  He was also very messy and required frequent cage cleanings. 

Andy was faithful for about a month, until the newness of having Mo wore off. Then it was a battle to get him to clean the cage and take care of his responbility.  So much for faithful pet ownership.  Mo became my responsibility  I said to Andy, you said you would take care of the guinie pig if you got him.  He said, but mom he likes you so much better.  Well of course he did…I remembered to feed him and give him water!  I took up the slack until I found him a new home.  Actually it worked out pretty well that Andy wasn’t faithful about his chore. Because a few years later when he wanted a ferret I was able to say, I’m sorry son but remember what happened with Mo.  The answer is no. 

Pledging faithfulness is much easier than being faithful. And so I challenge each of you to think carefully when you are making a commitment.  Regardless of what that commitment might be.  And never forget God’s faithfulness to you  He will not desert you. He will not fail you. God is constant, steadfast, and always faithful.  He is our model.