Genesis 14:21-24 KJV

And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons, and take the goods to thyself. [22] And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto the LORD, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth, [23] That I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take any thing that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich: [24] Save only that which the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men which went with me, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; let them take their portion.

Abraham, in our text, stated, "I have lift up mine hand unto the Lord."

Recently, I had the experience of being summoned to jury duty. That's all I will say concerning that. While I was there, we had to hold our right hand up and hold the King James Bible with our left hand. This was signifying that we promised or vowed to tell the truth. Which we did.

We are all guilty of making promises and not keeping them. Sometimes, we make promises based on feelings and not out of the heart that we have.

My mom would make us promise that we would go to McDonald's only if we would listen and obey what she told us to do.

We often make a promise when someone passes away, but as soon as we get done with the funeral and family is gone, we forget to keep our promises. Why? Because it's based on emotions.

Vowing a vow is important to God. In fact, Ecclesiastes 5:4-5 deals with vowing vows. Notice what it states.

Ecclesiastes 5:4-5 KJV

When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed. [5] Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.

Many have the idea that we can vow something to God, and then we can go back on our word.

God says I would rather you not vow a vow than to vow a vow and not pay.

People have vowed to read their Bible, pray daily, be faithful to church, faithful to give, and be a witness, yet they failed to keep the vow.

Abraham vowed a vow not because of emotions but because of the blessings that God had given him.

God had given Abraham so much that he said, "I'm blessed already, and I want God to bless me more."

I don't want someone saying that they made me rich. It was God that has blessed me.

1. No amount of money could buy out his vow.

"He already had money."

2. No amount of earthly goods would suffice what was his heavenly reward.

"Laying up treasures in Heaven."

3. No man could brag on themselves for helping Abraham complete his vow.

"No man could say I've made Abraham rich."

How does this apply to us?

If we have vowed things to the Lord, we must first of all keep what we have promised. Secondly, we must not let anything or anyone stand in the way of fulfilling our promises to God.

Thank you for reading today's fire-starter devotional. Please share this with someone. Also please send your prayer request to Justin@rtfministries.net by tomorrow evening.

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