Faith Promise-Who Gets It?
Pro 3:28 Say not unto thy neighbor, Go, and come again, and tomorrow I will give; when thou hast it by thee.

As I sit here looking at my bank balance of $.26 cents. which converts to 1.211peso, I am prompted to consider all I have learned about Faith promise.

First of all, I don’t want you to think the lack of money in the bank worries me in the least. It does not. I have been here for a year now and my monthly updates are a testimony to the faithfulness of God. He is more than able to support this ministry and it is actually in these lean times when He seems to cause the most to happen.

It does grieve my spirit though, as I think about those people who stood before God and vowed a vow to Him.

Faith promise is that time when we all get together and seek the Lord and say, “Lord, what will you have me to give”? Then we take the number that we got from Him, and place it on a card without our names, and turn it in to the Church. The Church turns around and tallies the numbers and declares what they will give to missions that year.

This is not what they will give to the general budget or to camp or to the building fund but what they will give to Missions.

Num 30:2 If a man vow a vow unto the LORD, or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond; he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth.

So herein lies the problem. We have people who get all warm and fuzzy at Church as they hear the word of God preached. They recognize their lack of giving unto the Lord. Faced with that prompting of the Holy Spirit they make a vow unto God. “Yes, O’ Lord, I promise to give ___...”

Many Churches will report, that Faith Promises that their people made, lasts maybe until the 2nd or 3rd month.

What happened? I’ll tell you what happened. Sin happened!

Deu 23:21 When thou shalt vow a vow unto the LORD thy God, thou shalt not slack to pay it: for the LORD thy God will surely require it of thee; and it would be sin in thee.

The trouble is, in today’s society, we have become oblivious to what is and what is not sin.

We tell someone we will meet them in Church at 9am and when the day comes, decide that we are too tired to go to Church. That is two sins right there. To avoid Church is a sin as well as it is a sin to lie. I don’t let anyone tell me well, Pilipino time or German time or Australian time. It’s God’s time and if you say you will be there, be there on time. If not, you have lied unless you were hit by a jeepney or some other catastrophe.

But I digress. We are talking about Faith Promise and I ask, where is the faith and where is the promise?

So now those who are guilty will rise up and defend their actions but how?

Ecc 5:4 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.

How can you defend the fact that God has called you a fool?

Why would God do that? Because it is true, If you fail to give to God, He will remember and cause poverty to come upon you.

Mal 1:14 But cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and voweth, and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing: for I am a great King, saith the LORD of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the heathen.

The trouble is, many Christians have no fear of the Lord and so, His name may not be dreadful among them.

Faith is putting your money where your mouth is. Promise is doing what you said you will do.

In the olden days a vow that left a mouth of a man could in no way be retracted.

Today, our yeas are nay and our nays are yea.

I think it is about time that we are ever so careful to watch the words that come out of our mouths to make sure we are without blame before our Lord.