I must realize that it is often easy to vow a vow, make a promise, to God, but it is not always easy to pay that vow. One man, near death, made a promise to God based on the condition that God would heal him. God did, so the psalmist said, I shall pay my vows to the Lord … in the presence of all His people (Psalm 116:14).
The greatest vow I can make is to promise my life to God. He treats that vow with the utmost seriousness, and He soon tests me to see how serious I am. If I promise to go with Him through the garden, it will not be very long before God leads me into Gethsemane, and there my promise must stand, or else I am a humbug. My ambitions for a crucified life are quickly thrown into the crucible, and I soon find out whether I am dead to the world or still harbor a spark of life.
After reading Isaiah 20, I feel amazed at how willing Isaiah was to be nothing in order to obey the word of God. For three years the prophet lived, naked and barefoot because God wanted to show the ultimate nakedness of Egypt through his behavior. I can only thank God that He has never asked me to walk naked and barefoot among my people. Would I be that dead to pride, criticism, and social pressure?
The cross of Christ was the ultimate of disgrace, of revulsion. Yet in that place of horrible dehumanization He paid to His Father His vow, which He had made in the past ages of eternity. Do I grumble because I have to pay a pledge or invest my time each week in the welfare of others? May I say honestly with Paul, thank God I can glory … in the cross of … Christ (Galatians 6:14, KJV). For it is in the cross that I find strength to pay all my vows to Him who vowed to suffer the cross for me.
Make vows to the Lord your God and fulfill them; let all who are around Him bring gifts to Him who is to be feared (Psalm 76:11).
Daily with the King 