My child, if you have put up security for your neighbor, if you have struck
hands in pledge for another, if you have been trapped by what you said, ensnared
by the words of your mouth, then, do this my child, to free yourself, since you
have fallen into your neighbor’s hands: go and humble yourself; press your plea
with your neighbor! Allow no sleep to your eyes, no slumber to your eyelids. Free
yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the
snare of the fowler. ~Proverbs 6:1-5
Again, you have heard that it was to the people long ago, “Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.” But I tell you, do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; or by the earth for it is God’s footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king. And do not swear by your head, for you can’t make even one hair white or black. Simply let your “yes” be “Yes,” and your “no,” be “No”; anything beyond his comes from the evil one.” ~Matthew 5:33-36
Okay, before we get serious here, I must confess that I can’t help but wonder how these days Jesus would have to redo his statement: “do not swear by your head, for you can’t make even one hair white or black.” Remember, Jesus was speaking before Clairol was around.
Now back to our regularly scheduled program. On the surface, in Solomon’s wisdom, these Proverbs appear to be about borrowing money and being ensnared by taking on too much debt, so that it is hard to pay back. But going deeper here, we can see a principle of over commitment, taking on too much work, so that is hard to live up to it or fulfill it.
It is so tempting to want to be the hero! “Sure, I can do that!” “No problem, I can afford that!” “I’d love to help!” Before we know it, we’re over committed, over scheduled and overspent. Notice, Solomon is talking about life with our neighbor here, the one with whom it is most important that we get along well.
Solomon and Jesus are giving the same advice. Be careful! Don’t over commit, don’t overstate your ability or over emphasize your importance. Be humble. Don’t believe your own press too much. It will only lead to trouble in the end. One wise pastor in our area says, “Always under promise, so you can over perform. Don’t make many promises, so that not much is expected. Then exceed expectations if you can.”
Solomon tells us to humble ourselves and free ourselves from the snare. What snare? The snare that our pride has created. It is humbling to admit that we can’t do it all. It is better to admit that early, before we over commit. Unfortunately, we take longer than we should to realize our mistake and we don’t usually realize that mistake until we have failed in some way. Our failure often results in injury somewhere. It could be a personal injury, a missed appointment, an overdraft on the bank account, or a missed opportunity. Hopefully, that’s when we pull back, but, even then, often, we don’t. We keep charging forward, thinking that we’ve learned our lesson and we’ll never do that again. O brother. Please tell me I’m not alone here. I hope to see lots of responses back on this one saying, “guilty as charged!” It’s hard to say “NO,” without feeling guilty for letting someone down.
Have you noticed that when we overcommit, the area of our lives that suffers most is in the spiritual realm? I remember hearing once of a plot that satan made against Christians which went something like this: He realized that he couldn’t stop them from doing acts of service and he couldn’t tempt them with the usual temptations to which human beings are susceptible. So, he hatched a plan to keep them busy, which would keep them from praying. Sadly, too often, this is true. We get so busy running around doing that we forget to pay attention to stopping and being in Christ.
In Matthew, Jesus’ antidote to this is “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matt. 11:28-30) Did you notice that Jesus admits to being humble? Solomon admonished us to humble ourselves too. That means that when we come clean, and free ourselves from commitments and promises we may not be able to fulfill, we are becoming like Christ!
Even Jesus with all his miraculous powers didn’t spend all of his time who doing everything he could or might. He took time to pray, even when crowds of miracle seekers were hunting for him. And he stayed on mission, allowing only a few interruptions. Jesus kept all the commitments and promises He made to be our Savior. Think about how many more miracles he could have performed, healing millions perhaps, if he had lived to a ripe old age.
But He lived only 33 years because he came to die on a cross. He spent only 3 years in ministry to preach the gospel, train a few disciples and then allow himself to be crucified as God’s sign of love and forgiveness for all who believe. He knew His mission was not to be a superhero only to those who could have been helped by his life on earth, but a Savior, to all who will be helped by his death on the cross.
One final thought, Paul says in 2 Cor. 8:11-13, “Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means. For if the willingness is there the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have.” In other words, you don’t need to do as much as you can you need to stick to your mission. Don’t call yourself to do what God has not called you to do. He will provide the means and ability to you for your mission.
For example: One of the reasons that the Vision team is looking for those who are called to take over the food pantry is because that is not our calling, but it might be yours. It would be wrong for us to keep holding on to it and try to keep control of it. We could hold on to it and add it to the yoke that Christ has already laid on us, but that would make our yoke even heavier and deprive you of the opportunity to share your gifts and step into your calling.
Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, I am willing to offer myself as a living sacrifice, and spend myself in Your service, but I need Your help and wisdom to not go beyond that to which You call me. I want to please You, but not just be a "people pleaser." In Jesus' name, amen.
Song: Come To Me (The first one has the words, but not great audio. So, this one sounds a lot better: Come to Me.)
Again, you have heard that it was to the people long ago, “Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.” But I tell you, do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; or by the earth for it is God’s footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king. And do not swear by your head, for you can’t make even one hair white or black. Simply let your “yes” be “Yes,” and your “no,” be “No”; anything beyond his comes from the evil one.” ~Matthew 5:33-36
Okay, before we get serious here, I must confess that I can’t help but wonder how these days Jesus would have to redo his statement: “do not swear by your head, for you can’t make even one hair white or black.” Remember, Jesus was speaking before Clairol was around.
Now back to our regularly scheduled program. On the surface, in Solomon’s wisdom, these Proverbs appear to be about borrowing money and being ensnared by taking on too much debt, so that it is hard to pay back. But going deeper here, we can see a principle of over commitment, taking on too much work, so that is hard to live up to it or fulfill it.
It is so tempting to want to be the hero! “Sure, I can do that!” “No problem, I can afford that!” “I’d love to help!” Before we know it, we’re over committed, over scheduled and overspent. Notice, Solomon is talking about life with our neighbor here, the one with whom it is most important that we get along well.
Solomon and Jesus are giving the same advice. Be careful! Don’t over commit, don’t overstate your ability or over emphasize your importance. Be humble. Don’t believe your own press too much. It will only lead to trouble in the end. One wise pastor in our area says, “Always under promise, so you can over perform. Don’t make many promises, so that not much is expected. Then exceed expectations if you can.”
Solomon tells us to humble ourselves and free ourselves from the snare. What snare? The snare that our pride has created. It is humbling to admit that we can’t do it all. It is better to admit that early, before we over commit. Unfortunately, we take longer than we should to realize our mistake and we don’t usually realize that mistake until we have failed in some way. Our failure often results in injury somewhere. It could be a personal injury, a missed appointment, an overdraft on the bank account, or a missed opportunity. Hopefully, that’s when we pull back, but, even then, often, we don’t. We keep charging forward, thinking that we’ve learned our lesson and we’ll never do that again. O brother. Please tell me I’m not alone here. I hope to see lots of responses back on this one saying, “guilty as charged!” It’s hard to say “NO,” without feeling guilty for letting someone down.
Have you noticed that when we overcommit, the area of our lives that suffers most is in the spiritual realm? I remember hearing once of a plot that satan made against Christians which went something like this: He realized that he couldn’t stop them from doing acts of service and he couldn’t tempt them with the usual temptations to which human beings are susceptible. So, he hatched a plan to keep them busy, which would keep them from praying. Sadly, too often, this is true. We get so busy running around doing that we forget to pay attention to stopping and being in Christ.
In Matthew, Jesus’ antidote to this is “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matt. 11:28-30) Did you notice that Jesus admits to being humble? Solomon admonished us to humble ourselves too. That means that when we come clean, and free ourselves from commitments and promises we may not be able to fulfill, we are becoming like Christ!
Even Jesus with all his miraculous powers didn’t spend all of his time who doing everything he could or might. He took time to pray, even when crowds of miracle seekers were hunting for him. And he stayed on mission, allowing only a few interruptions. Jesus kept all the commitments and promises He made to be our Savior. Think about how many more miracles he could have performed, healing millions perhaps, if he had lived to a ripe old age.
But He lived only 33 years because he came to die on a cross. He spent only 3 years in ministry to preach the gospel, train a few disciples and then allow himself to be crucified as God’s sign of love and forgiveness for all who believe. He knew His mission was not to be a superhero only to those who could have been helped by his life on earth, but a Savior, to all who will be helped by his death on the cross.
One final thought, Paul says in 2 Cor. 8:11-13, “Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means. For if the willingness is there the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have.” In other words, you don’t need to do as much as you can you need to stick to your mission. Don’t call yourself to do what God has not called you to do. He will provide the means and ability to you for your mission.
For example: One of the reasons that the Vision team is looking for those who are called to take over the food pantry is because that is not our calling, but it might be yours. It would be wrong for us to keep holding on to it and try to keep control of it. We could hold on to it and add it to the yoke that Christ has already laid on us, but that would make our yoke even heavier and deprive you of the opportunity to share your gifts and step into your calling.
Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, I am willing to offer myself as a living sacrifice, and spend myself in Your service, but I need Your help and wisdom to not go beyond that to which You call me. I want to please You, but not just be a "people pleaser." In Jesus' name, amen.
Song: Come To Me (The first one has the words, but not great audio. So, this one sounds a lot better: Come to Me.)
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