OT DAY 235 - Making A Vow to God (Please click here for English podcast)

Please click the link below to my new 40 days Break.Build site any time you like to having a 40 days "Break.Build" daily devotion with one to two people as a discipler to help those Jesus prepares for you to disciple. You need to know that the call and purpose of my Break.Build and this Discipler123 blog/podcast is for you to become a discipler to help more people to have a daily intimate relationship with Jesus and then they can become disciplers too:
http://www.breakbuild.blogspot.ca/

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Silence

1.   Put on your “brakes” and stop for a moment of silence

2.   Wait for God. Breathe deep for God's peace. Exhale your worries.

Praise and Thanksgiving

1.   Think through your day, all the times that made you smile

2.   Thank God for all those moments, and for all those people

3.   Open your heart to praise the Lord

        
           Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
              in whose heart are the highways to Zion.
6         As they go through the Valley of Baca
              they make it a place of springs;
              the early rain also covers it with pools.
7         They go from strength to strength;
              each one appears before God in Zion.

                             Psalm 84:5-7

Confession and Repentance

1.  Pray for the Holy Spirit to work in you:

     “Dear Holy Spirit, shine your light into the places of darkness in my life. Show me my sins, everything that blocks me from encountering God. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.”

2.  Through the Holy Spirit, examine yourself for a short silence and then pray:

     "Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross for our sins and being victorious over death and sin. I confess my sin to you(pause, to tell Jesus what the Holy Spirit has shown you). Forgive my sins by your blood and help me follow you. Holy Spirit, fill me that I may be able to receive your gifts to love God and His people. In Jesus Name I pray, Amen."

The Word (Numbers 30:1-16)

English(ESV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers 28&version=ESV

Moses spoke to the heads of the tribes of the people of Israel, saying, “This is what the Lord has commanded. 2 If a man vows a vow to the Lord, or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.  3 “If a woman vows a vow to the Lord and binds herself by a pledge, while within her father's house in her youth, 4 and her father hears of her vow and of her pledge by which she has bound herself and says nothing to her, then all her vows shall stand, and every pledge by which she has bound herself shall stand. 5 But if her father opposes her on the day that he hears of it, no vow of hers, no pledge by which she has bound herself shall stand. And the Lord will forgive her, because her father opposed her.

                               Numbers 30:1-5

Let's have a time to be still and give the Holy Spirit space to speak through the passage of scripture we have just read. Offer this time up to Jesus as you listen to him, while listening to "Gabriel's Oboe"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmax47l2hLU

My Listening
     Have you made a vow to God before? It's not like before you blow out your birthday cake's candles. That's a wish. But, that can turns to be a vow if you say to God like this, "Heavenly Father, if you heal my cancer, I will prepare myself to become a pastor to serve you." That's a vow. 

Let's see how Professor John Goldingay tells us: 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Goldingay) :

    

     In the Old Testament, Hannah promises her unborn (indeed, unconceived!) child to God. The Torah refers to promises about making a sacrifice in connection with prayers, and keeping the promise would cost the family, not just the individual. There are also unhappy stories about vows by Jephthah (Judges 11:29-40) and Saul, though the latter makes explicit that you can always come back to God and seek to renegotiate a promise( as the people realize, though Saul did not, and tragically Jephthah did not). 

John Goldingay. Numbers & Deuteronomy for Everyone. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010, p.82.

       You may think like this, "I want to have a child but for years I do not have. Dear God, if you give me a child, I'll offer the child to you to serve you as a pastor. This is a vow I make to you." Do you think you would have a child after making that vow? Do you think you would keep your promise to God after you really have a child? I do not know how to answer that because that is a relational question between God and you. 

     What I can tell you is a true story about my mother. My grandmother forced my mother to go to seminary to become a pastor in the '40s. My mother started her study in a seminary for a few months and she wanted to quit. So, she prayed like this, "Dear God, I am not able to do that. That is too hard for me. I cannot be a pastor. I will offer my elder son to you to become a pastor if you allow me to do so, please accept my vow." You know what, she became a nurse a few years later. And I become a pastor and so as my younger brother. That may be the power of a vow as my family experienced. 

    I am not telling you from now on you need to start making vows. No!  Don't make any vow unless you are really very sure that is from God. And, if you make a vow, you need to keep your promise!

Dear Heavenly Father, 
Help us to understand the meaning and power of a vow so that we are not going to misuse that.  In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Reflect on these questions:
1. Are you those people who like to make vows to God but never keep your promise? 

2. Do you have a new understanding of vows to God now?  

Praise and Thanksgiving

Let's give thanks for God with us. Let us praise Him:

10,000 Reasons

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXDGE_lRI0E

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Daily Devotion on Fire: http://bishopsilas.blogspot.ca/

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