The Lord is so faithful, isn’t He? Whatever He says He will do, He will do. He won’t take back one word He speaks as a promise. Some of those promises have already been fulfilled in our lives; others are to come. To experience them all, though, it should be remembered that some are conditional. Rather than go through the list of promises with different conditions, I think the following verse pretty much summarizes them all. “…No good thing will He withhold from those who walk along His paths.” Psalm 84: 11.

God’s promises are spoken from the essence of His holy character; the character that He desires to restore in us. So when we make promises to Him and others, He expects us to follow through as He does. “This is what the Lord commands; When a man makes a vow to the Lord or takes an oath to obligate himself by a pledge, he must not break his word but must do everything he said” (Numbers 30: 1, 2).

Make no mistake. The promises we make are a serious matter to God; for keeping them is to be as He is— to be holy as He is holy. So before making any promises, keep in mind the following…

“When you make a vow to God, do not delay to pay it; for He has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you have vowed. For it is better not to vow than to vow and not pay” (Ecclesiastes 5: 4, 5).