I promise to...

Who may worship in your sanctuary, Lord? Who may enter your presence on your holy hill? Those who lead blameless lives and do what is right, speaking the truth from sincere hearts. Those who refuse to gossip or harm their neighbors or speak evil of their friends. Those who despise flagrant sinners, and honor the faithful followers of the Lord, and keep their promises even when it hurts. Those who lend money without charging interest, and who cannot be bribed to lie about the innocent. Such people will stand firm forever. (Psalm 15 NLT)

Blameless lives - can any of us actually say we have or are living blameless lives? I dare not imagine what would be the outcome of your inspection of my life! I have lived far short of blameless! The only thing that makes it possible for me to approach a holy God is the holiness of Jesus. The only thing that makes it possible for you to approach a holy God is the holiness of Jesus and his grace applied to your lives! Do we always do what is right? Nope - so we need the grace of God. Do we always speak the truth from sincere and dedicated hearts, unwilling to compromise truth? Nope - so we need his power and strength to know when to speak, what to speak, and to open the ears of those who will hear that truth. Have we gossiped? I would imagine there are very few in this world who have never engaged in the sharing of 'juicy tidbits' about one another. Blameless lives? The only thing that cleans the slate is the blood of Jesus. 

How do we move away from those things God tells us keep us from sharing freely in his presence? We invite Jesus into our lives, giving him our hearts, minds, and our will. We dedicate ourselves to being 'faithful followers' - keeping our promises (both to him and to others) even when it hurts. How many of us are guilty of making promises and then not following through on them? If you have ever said to someone, "I will be praying for you", kind of as an automatic response to their pain or suffering, then forgotten to lift even a short prayer for them, you might have fallen short of you promise to be 'praying for them'. We all know that keeping our promises to others can be hard. Keeping our promises to God can be even harder. If you have ever said to God, "Please take this away from me and I will do this", how have you done keeping that promise? 

If you are like the rest of us, you might have had the need to 'renew' those promises you have made to him on more than one occasion. The more we 'try' to keep our promises to him, the harder it seems to become. Why is that? I think we have an enemy that opposes every step forward we take with Jesus. The closer we draw to him, the more our enemy opposes us. The promises we make to God may take the form of "I will be more committed to..." or even "I will not do ___ if you help me to do...". The promises were good when we made them, but when the willpower to do them wears off, the promises take backseat in our focus. The key to keeping promises may very well be our focus. Maintain a centered and dedicated focus on Jesus and you are likely going to keep those promises. Let that focus waver and your promises will waver! Just sayin!