I Should Be Committed

This month I celebrate 30 years of working for the same company.  Later this year my wife and I will celebrate 30 years of marriage.  In the fall my folks will celebrate 72 years of marriage!  Except for a couple of brief times away, I have been attending the same church for more than 54 years!  I’m not writing those things to boast.  I will say though that it is not the norm in our society these days to see long term commitments in the workplace, the home, or the church.

I understand fully that there are valid reasons for ending relationships but today, let me focus on the reasons for long term commitments because I want to try to be an advocate to change the pattern. I want to skew the averages and change the status quo!

So let me share a few verses that reflect God’s character and his desire for us regarding loyalty, faithfulness, and commitment…

Proverbs 3:3-4  “Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart.  So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man.”

2 Timothy 2:13  “…if we are faithless, he remains faithful for he cannot deny himself.”

Romans 8:38-39  “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

1 John 3:24  “Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.”

Hebrews 10:24-25  “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

God is faithful.  It is his character.  It is the foundation of so many great hymns…Blessed Assurance and Great is Thy Faithfulness are just a couple that come to mind.  Perhaps the most explicit and powerful verse about God’s enduring, eternal faithfulness and loyalty to us is found in Hebrews 13:5 “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”  It is a restatement of a promise made by the Lord through Moses found in Deuteronomy 31:6-8 as Israel prepared to cross the Jordan River into the Promised Land.  What a promise…what blessed assurance.  What confidence it gives us to know that God will never leave us…never forsake us.

Like i said in the title of this post…I should be committed!  Each day is a new opportunity to commit to, and invest ourselves into our relationships with our family, our friends, our coworkers, the family of God, and most importantly our relationship with God himself. Let’s start each day with an eternal mindset; with a commitment to being faithful.

#livelikeChrist