The Lord has many attributes, all of them holy, righteous and true. Some examples of His attributes are knowledge, mercy, dependability, wisdom, vision, and compassion, to name a few. i’ve made a list of 94 and i’m sure that is a small list, but in that list, one of His attributes is “commitment”. The Lord, from the beginning, is committed to His creation, and His works can be seen everywhere if we have eyes to look and see.
If we look around, we can even see the works of God within each of us. His commitment follows us from our day of first breathing to the end of life; from His provision to His protection; all the way to giving us His presence, even when we don’t realize it.
i believe many times, we really need to be reminded of His commitment to us. From the beginning to the end, through all Israel’s many captivities, changes and uprootings which the Israelites faced, God reminded them of His commitment, even when they were horrible to Him. Isaiah 43:1-7 is God’s reminder to Israel that He is present and will deliver, and i believe we can take that for ourselves to remember He is present and will deliver.
Today, while circumstances may serve each of us with our own captivities, shiftings and uprootings, God wants to remind us of His commitment to us.
One of the ways He does this is by calling us by name. We are not just a “hey you” to the Lord. We are not a generalizing “them”. The Lord affirms that He knew who we currently are, and who we will become. Calling us each by name means God knows us intimately; He knows our past, present, and future. The Lord our God is familiar with our ways and even our potential. We can rest assured that God cares about us and will provide and protect us. He is committed to us and our welfare.
This evenings topic is directed to those of us who know Him, or at least say we know Him, but all of us, tall, short, wide, narrow, old and young need to be reminded from time to time, of His dedication; from our beginning to our end, the Lord is with us.
i have a friend who chose to move, and i’m pretty sure he didn’t exactly wait on God to tell Him to move, but he moved anyway. Life in a distant state which was not his home was difficult, although he did learn a lot, it was still difficult. Over time he realized he’d made a move without including the Lord in his decision and it was an agonizing mistake. Even though he “moved away” under his own steam, the Lord was committed to his wellbeing. Even when he got terribly ill, the Lord made a provision for him. Through the two-year ordeal, God was faithful and never stopped talking to him or loving him.
The Lord is committed to His those who are His, even when His own don’t listen. Jesus calls my friend by name, He knows him and even guided him through his self-imposed misdirected path. Romans 8:28, “… all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” Please take note it doesn’t only say, “all things work together for good”, it says “all things work together for good to those who love God, called according to His purpose”. It’s important to take that entire scripture in it’s context. Actually, here’s a good outline for reading your Bible: think CCC. Culture, Content, and Context. When reading remember what the culture of the day was, and if you don’t know go find out. Content, meaning what does it actually say? Understand the words used in the passage, and believe me, English doesn’t even begin to tell the whole story many times. Context. What is happening before and after the particular passage your reading? How does it tie in with the verses before and after? As example, any time you see a sentence beginning with the word “therefore”, that means you need to grasp what was previously mentioned and the verses after so as to understand what God is talking about.
Isaiah 43:1-2, “… Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, neither shall the flames kindle upon you, for I am the Lord your God.” That’s quite an amazing promise, but more importantly, do you believe it?
Since God knows each of us intimately, He knows the trials we’re facing and has already made provision and protection. The Lord says, “I know you; I know what you are going through; and I know what I will do in response.”
In Isaiah43:2, i take it that waters and fires are often metaphors for sorrow and danger, and we need to remember, God doesn’t say there won’t be sorrow or danger. He never said anything about us living a life without disappointment and struggle or affliction. John 16:33, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” He knows what is coming in your life, and He is already there making a way for you. Believe it and bank on it.
He assures us of His presence while we are in the middle of our circumstances where we experience sorrows and danger… He’s even making a provision for us when it looks like the flood of life will simply swallow us up. God is there. He knows you and calls you by name, and His knowing your name is a good thing, so be glad, for there are those to whom He will say, “I never knew you.”
In Isaiah46:10, the Lord reveals that He knows the end from the beginning, so from the beginning He has prepared a path for you all the way to the end. He has promised to be present in hard times to comfort and help you. Believe the Lord when He says you are valuable to Him, and He is willing and wanting to take care of you. In the Kingdom of God there are no “throw away people”.
Why do many of us have such a hard time letting God be good to us? Now there’s a question we would all do well to spend a moment thinking about. We could start by trusting in His word and allowing Him to go with us on our life’s expedition, even through our difficult times, especially through our difficult times.
Here is a slightly different view of God’s commitment to us…. in Isaiah43:1 the Lord says He calls us by our name, those who are His, and He’s pointing out that there are those who are His because… there are those who aren’t. Friends, not everyone is a child of God. When the Lord calls us, His intent in the call is for more than just us being obedient… truly i don’t think any man, in and of himself, can respond to God’s call unless the Lord enables him or her through His divine supply of power to actually answer that call. His commitment is seen in not only His intent to have us join Him in His work, but also that He enables us to respond. We cannot “be” where He is in and of our own power, thus He must come to us, or empower us to “be” where He is….the Lord doesn’t call us and then just leaves us in the dust to despair over our inability to answer back.
Before there was anything in the universe, God has had a plan for our redemption and reconciliation. From Isaiah 46:10 we know the Lord knew the end from the beginning, so from the beginning He declared a plan to deliver us from the slavery of a loveless and corrupt world. God is committed to us and it is ultimately seen and understood by John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, He gave His only son,” and Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Before the universe was, God’s intent was to send His son to die and live again as a commitment of His love for a fallen people.
So, in light of God’s commitment to us, He even continues to hold out His offer of hope and salvation to a world which doesn’t like to retain the thought of Him in their minds. So, if we understand that, what is our problem with commitment??
Ephesians 5:1-2, “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children, and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” If we’re supposed to imitate Christ then, i’ll ask again, what is our problem with commitment? If we’re going to imitate Jesus, we ought not to be choosy about which attributes to imitate.
We, as the people of God, are the very people the world should know can be counted on; that when we say we are committed to a cause, or committed to honesty, they will know us by our love, and part of love is commitment. Let’s understand, we’re not talking about James5:12 which says we shouldn’t swear and vow but let your yes be yes and no be no, that’s not what we’re talking about. The Lord commits to us and asks us to be imitators of him. i’m talking about our depth of character, and your yes, means you are committed to what you’ve agreed to because you’re such a person of character you’ve carefully considered the ramifications of a situation and have righteously concluded it is something you can say yes to and then do what you say. And if you conclude it is not something you can commit to, be people of honor and good boundaries, say no and let your no stand. Be reliable, consistent and repeatable. Real leadership is more about character, conversation, and conduct than it is about walking around talking and telling people what to do.
We come up with the wildest excuses as to why we can’t commit … we have trouble committing to things like consistently taking the garbage out or to our covenant marriage vows. We have all sorts of excuses why we can’t commit to things… We make excuses like: i don’t like the people because every time I go there, they asked me for money; the people where i sat didn’t seem very friendly; the seats were hard; the leadership didn’t speak to me; they make decision i don’t agree with; they’re all hypocrites; i was late getting home; or how about – i don’t take my children because i want them to choose for themselves someday. i say those are a bunch of really lame reasons for NOT participating with the Body of Christ.
Now i’m not making fun, but i have to say, i’ve asked people why they don’t commit to friendships, church groups, bible study groups and those were often the answers i got….and i must be honest…. i’ve said some of those things too and i must admit they are ridiculously lame excuses to not commit to anything. C’mon those reasons are right up there with “the dog ate my homework”. Is there an honest answer anywhere there? If the Lord is brave enough to say, “Yes” or “No” and stand on it, then i think we should be too. He is committed to His promises to us. 2 Cor1:20, “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.” He is committed to His love for us. 1 John 3:16, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.” He is committed to our welfare. Philippians 4:19, “And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” The list of God’s commitments go on and on, so don’t Never let yourself believe God is not committed to you. That is not what the Bible says. The Lord is faithful!
As God is committed to us, let us be committed to Him and others, being merciful, full of grace, taking action in our work of reconciliation, being merciful to those who fall short. Be honest, be kind, and do no harm.
Commitment to God means that Jesus is our sole authority, our guiding light and our exact and infallible compass. Being committed to Christ means being fruitful; it means being a servant. Philip1:21, “For me to live is Christ”.
A promise is a binding declaration that gives us a right to expect or to claim a specific act. God’s promises are His commitments to us.
God assures us that if we have trusted Jesus as our Savior, He has given us eternal life. You have it, you don’t have to keep trying to get it. “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.” (1 John 5:13)
God promises to never leave you. Hebrews13:5, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
God has forgiven your sins. Colossians2:13-14, “And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.” If He has forgiven you, then you are forgiven, and if you’re forgiven, you can’t be both wheat and chaff both. God didn’t say you were pretty much forgiven, or forgiven for the most part. He meant what He said or else He wouldn’t have said it. Why do we have such a hard time letting God be good to us? The focus is on His goodness, not on your badness.
i believe we absolutely can dare to ask people to make a commitment of their lives to Christ because God has already made a commitment to us. The crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, those three days were God’s day of days, His commitment day for all time.
Dr. Frank Page wrote, “God’s commitment day was marked by weeping and sorrow, darkness and angry curses. In the midst of all the pain of a Roman
crucifixion, God committed Himself to us.” In1 Peter 2:1-10, the letter was directed to a people who had been scattered everywhere by the persecution of the Roman government. Those early Christians were living in fear for their lives. They needed to know that God had made a commitment to them, and … so do we.”
In the exacting days of our lives, in the trying and possibly fatiguing days ahead, let us hold our heads high, let us be committed to our God, committed to our spouses and children, committed to becoming mature believers because God, from the beginning, committed Himself to us and our welfare. God is here! Think about it.
Commitment … it is one of God’s attributes, part of His character. If Jesus is in you, then the power and ability to commit to the Lord, yourself, and others is available. So much of our world today promises commitment, but in the end, there is no follow through, so often, in general, people seem to have a very low expectation of anyone to do what they say. This entire discussion of commitment is actually a continuation of the discussion a few weeks ago concerning pledges and affirmations and James 5:12.
i believe many marriages fail these days because not many have respect for their commitments nor can their “yes” be “yes” or their “no” be “no”. It’s true, with every commitment there is a risk of failure, but what we don’t seem to take into account is there is also a high probability of success also. God enables and equips us to be faithful to Him. Righteous commitment is God’s domain, done God’s way in God’s power. It is a beautiful thing He gives to us, not only His commitment of help, but the ultimate commitment of His love by the death and resurrection of Christ, that we would have life and have it more abundantly.
Take your time this week and remember, the Lord is committed to you and yours and is sure of Himself to make promises that will never be broken. “For the Word of the LORD is right and true; He is faithful in all He does”, Psalm33:4.
Be strong and courageous, Jesus knows your name, and that’s a good thing. Amen.