Episode 473

TODAY’S READING

And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. 37 All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.”

Matthew 5:36-37

 

When I was reading different verses, which, you know, write today’s devotional, I came across this one, and it really was very interesting to me. It resonated with it because one of my pet peeves is when someone has an explanation as to why they could or could not do something if I ask them a question. They will rebuttal with a paragraph, and I am guilty of doing that too. So I just wanted to preface with that. Sometimes I do always have an explanation for you know why I couldn’t commit or follow through with the commitment that I had set. And I believe it’s a bad trade of mine, and I think it’s a bad trade for all of us if it’s something that we do. You know, when we come up with these long-winded excuses, really as to why we couldn’t follow through with our commitments. 

 

We lose faith in the people around us. They start to lose trust in our ability to keep our word and keep our promises. And so this is, I think, just trying to get straight to it. We either have to say yes or no; it’s very simple. That’s why they will say it is evil. It’s very simple. We either have to commit to something or set a boundary and from the get, same knowledge that we could not fulfill whatever is asked from us. For XYZ reason, we are able to set healthy boundaries, and that makes us more honorable people. So today, let us focus on setting clear boundaries. Let us focus on setting clear expectations of what someone can and cannot expect from us. Because when we say yes or no and when we follow through with that, we are living in the highest form of honor really. And people respect us a lot more for it. So if you’re someone like me or someone like you know, maybe you know someone that this is something that they struggle with, let’s try to go away from excuses and let’s try to just be people who are either yes or no. 

 

So yes or no, people. Let us make it very simple. 

 

Prayer

Father God, we love you so much. And we thank you for your word, Lord. We thank you that every day we have something new to listen to, something new to read, something that needs to apply to our lives. And Lord, today, we’re going to apply the rule of saying yes or no. The rule of being honorable is the ability to follow through with our commitments, the ability to set clear expectations, and the ability to be someone that can be trusted to follow through with what they say. So Lord, today, we asked for the strength in doing so; we asked for some wisdom in the places that we could be better in this area specifically, and we thank you for pointing it out for us. We love you so much, and we pray this all in your son’s holy name, Amen.