Give your heart to God every day! Why not? He loves you! If you promise to love and serve Him, by His power, and ask Him to bless you in witnessing to others of His love, He will be happy with you! Even though we are cautioned by Jesus not to vow, because we cannot turn one hair of our head white or black, He is talking about any promises that we make in our own strength. “Nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black.” Matthew 5:36 NASB. See also Ecclesiastes 5:4-5, and Deuteronomy 23:21. The key here is that we cannot keep an oath that we made ‘by our head,’ or by ourselves. But we can vow by the mighty power of God! “For when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself,” Hebrews 6:13 NASB. See also Galatians 6:14, and 2 Corinthians 10:1.
Jesus also taught this vital truth that we should pray for God’s will, which implies it’s by His power, since He is God. Praying 'for God’s will to be done' is similar to when you make a vow to God, by His power, for things that are His will. Jesus taught this when He said, “Pray, then, in this way: 'Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come.Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.’” Matthew 6:9-10 NASB. A prayer like this is a vow to let God’s will be done in your life by His power, as it is in Heaven, because when you pray like Jesus did in ‘the Lord’s Prayer’, as it is known, you are praying for God’s will to be done in your life. Now the Apostle Peter says, “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9 KJV. So if you pray for your own salvation, it is always God’s will! If your heart wants to make a vow to God to give your heart to Him completely by His power, this is always His will! He is unwilling that any should perish. This is the only way any of us can be saved, by His will and power. So it is clear, that you can give your heart to God, and ask Him to keep this vow by His mighty, unfailing power! If you pray according to God’s will, you are guaranteed that He will listen to your prayer and grant it to you. He is unwilling that any should perish! If you were never under any circumstances to make a vow to God, then Moses need not have said, “If a man makes a vow to the LORD, or takes an oath to bind himself with a binding obligation, he shall not violate his word; he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.” Numbers 30:2 NASB, because Moses would have said, ‘do not make any vows, for they are all sin.’ But this is not the case!
Jesus is cautioning His people to not be quick to make a vow to God, because none of us have the ability to keep our vows! Only God can offer that kind of a rock-solid assurance, because only God cannot fail. We cannot fail, if we put our trust in God to help us keep our promise to be His peculiar treasure! Notice that in the original covenant between God and His people at Sinai, that He made a vow to His people that if they would obey His voice, that they would be His own peculiar treasure above all people, for all the earth is His. Exodus 19:5. Notice that God made no reference here to His people making a promise to Him, even though they did in Exodus 19:8, but the promise is in God’s power to save alone. He will help His people obey them, if they would only listen to Him and want to obey Him in all things, and keep their heart clean by confession. So when we make a vow to God by His power, we are really vowing what was already promised to us in Exodus 19:5, which is really God’s vow to make us His people!Some may say this vow by God was just for the Israelites, but Paul says, “And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Galatians 3:29 KJV. So this promise in Exodus 19:5 is for Christians too!
When you make a vow like this to God, you must make sure that you don’t have any unconfessed sins in your heart, or the Lord will not hear your prayer! “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:” Psalm 66:18 KJV. If you are willingly turning away from hearing or wanting to do any of His commandments, God will not hear your prayers, for then they will be an abomination to Him, until you ask Him for forgiveness and repent. “He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.” Proverbs 28:9 KJV. You cannot have this deep love for God and desire to serve Him all the way, if your heart is stained with iniquity that has not been cleansed by the blood of the Lamb. But ‘if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9 KJV. So there is no reason for anyone to have any stain of sin in their heart, for God has promised to forgive us all of our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, if we would just confess them.
So you know now that it is God’s will for you to give your heart to Him! It’s what He’s been waiting for! But if you love Jesus and His Father, you can’t help but want make a vow to them. You have nothing to lose if you break your vow to Him, because you are lost without Him, and can do nothing without Him. But if God’s love is making you happy, why not commit your life to God all the way now? You can only promise your heart to God by His power, because none of us have this power within ourselves to keep our word. But God has the power to help you keep His word, so if you promise your heart to God by His power, you cannot ultimately fail, as long as you keep promising your heart to God by His power every day! His power will be in you a well of water springing up unto eternal life! John 4:14.
Why not promise your heart to God every day, by His power? Nothing can make your soul happier than doing this. If God’s love is in your heart, it will be your greatest desire to serve Him, and you won’t be able to help yourself! You will then be flooded with love, joy and peace!
Amen!
By John Foll.
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Originally posted 2016-11-21 10:16:00.
The Unity of the Scriptures. We want to build upon our order upon order, and line upon line doctrines. “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17 KJV. What scripture does Paul say is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction and instruction in righteousness? All scripture. What scriptures were the scriptures in Paul’s day? Just the Old Testament. Paul didn’t start to write any of his epistles until a long time after Jesus had gone back to Heaven, and most likely his own writings, although inspired, were not considered on the same level as scriptures until a later date. Our point is to make you aware that the books of the Old Testament were the scriptures first, and they were the scriptures that Paul specifically referred to when he wrote the epistle of 2nd Timothy. In addition to some Christians wanting to get rid of the Old Testament as part of their rule of faith, atheism, for some time now, has been trying to destroy our belief that God was the creator, as the Bible says He was in the book of Genesis. What’s at stake? The unity of the Bible, and whether God really meant what He said, or whether He changed His mind and said something different at a later date.
The articles in our series: “Order Upon Order, Line Upon Line, Precept Upon Precept!” on our Love of God Blog: are designed to teach you the importance of studying the […]
We will post precious truth about Bible doctrines that are essential for you to know, that you might not be aware of.The goal of this blog is to help everyone […]
Dear Friend: I see you have had a lot of trouble since you became a Christian. You have had great trouble and were wondering why God wasn’t helping you. You haven’t had an easy life, and the enemy of humanity has been greatly troubling you and trying to put you down, and to steal your new life away from you. You don’t know why you can’t have an easier time, and not have so many problems. I would like to tell you about my special friend whom you are starting to get to know. His name is Jesus. He knows what you are going through, the problems you inherited, and knows the battles that you are fighting. But He has won the battle for you at the cross and has been given all power and authority. Matthew 28:18. Just let Him fight your battles for you and rest in His strength. He is pleading on your behalf to the Father. Sometimes you have felt like you were ready to give up. Are you ready to give up yet? Then let God take care of you.
"The just shall live by faith." Who are the just? -- They are only those who are of faith, because men are justified only by faith. For though we all "have sinned and come short of the glory of God," yet we are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." For "to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Those who are of faith and those alone are the just in the earth.
“To whom would He teach knowledge, and to whom would He interpret the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just taken from the breast? For He says, 'Order on order, order on order, line on line, line on line, a little here, a little there.' Indeed, He will speak to this people through stammering lips and a foreign tongue, He who said to them, "Here is rest, give rest to the weary," And "Here is repose," but they would not listen.” Isaiah 28:9-12 NASB. [Or as it says in the KJV: “this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.”]. Yes that is the question: To whom will God teach knowledge? Would He want to keep having to teach us over and over the basics of the truth when we should have already learned it long ago? God prefers that His people advance closer to His ideal for them, instead of being “stuck in neutral” or backsliding. In this article, we want to discuss some important Bible study principles to help you to know how to properly study and understand the “saving truths” that you need to know, and not be deceived into the many errors that plague Christianity today and modern man. We want to help equip you to know the truth if you don’t already know it. But we believe there is ever more to learn. It’s time to get beyond the basics, but to get beyond the basics the errors must be unlearned and true faith learned by all who would want to be weaned from spiritual infancy.
The Joy of a Fool or the Joy of the Wise? Which will you have? How can both the wise and the fool have joy? “Folly is joy to him that is destitute of wisdom: but a man of understanding walketh uprightly.” Proverbs 15:21 KJV. Now from the NASB: “Folly is joy to him who lacks sense, but a man of understanding walks straight.” Proverbs 15:21 NASB. Solomon declared that foolishness or folly is joy to the man who lacks understanding. The fool is compared with a man of understanding who walks uprightly, the wise man or the righteous man. Is there also joy for the righteous? Yes true joy! There are two paths to joy. Which one will you choose?
“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” Ephesians 2:8-10 NASB. Not only are we saved by grace, but we were also created in Christ Jesus for good works. According to Paul its not one way or the other its both: We are saved by grace AND created in Christ Jesus for good works.
Jesus said, ‘But so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me. Get up, let us go from here.’ John 14:31 NASB. It’s time to get busy serving the Lord and carrying out His will. Get up, let us go from here! This is what Jesus said as He went out of the last supper with His disciples, to allow Judas Iscariot and the mob to arrest Him and take Him to Jerusalem, that He might die on the cross for our sins. Men did a lot of bad things to Jesus, but it was necessary for our salvation and for the world that He submit to all that Satan and evil men would do to Him; that He would drink this cup that the Father had given Him to drink and die on the cross for our sins, a most cruel death, but He did it out of love for His Father and for you and me! But He would see all the people who would be saved, and be satisfied with His sacrifice. “He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.” Isaiah 53:11 KJV. Never forget what Jesus did for you and the other sinners in this world! Meditate on this often, never let it depart from your mind. In like manner, if we love Jesus and His Father, it is time, high time, that we go out from here to carry out God’s plan to save the world.
