“A Man of Empty Promises” Question 7/244

Are you known by the promises you don’t keep?

    I truly hope I’m not a promise-breaker. But then again maybe I am.

    I honestly promise to do too many things for God. I fail many temptations. And in my state of guilt and willingness to try and impress him, I promise that “I will never do that again!” but end up sounding more like a broken record. “Again. Again. Again…” Does God want my empty promises? I wouldn’t stay in a relationship with someone who continually breaks promises, yet God has done that for me! So what do I say then? That “I’ll just try harder next time”?

    Let me tell you something: God doesn’t want my tries or my promises. He wants my heart. He wants to change my desires. He uses even the most horrible temptations to change my heart (Romans 8:28). Hallelujah!

Where I generally mess up is in where my effort fits in. Romans 8:13 says I can “put to death the misdeeds of the body by the Spirit.” Well I have the Spirit, so everything’s peachy, right? Just “depend on the Spirit” (however you do that) and he takes care of everything? Both you and I know it never works that way. So why doesn’t the Spirit just automatically give me the strength I need? Well, let me ask you this: Would that really bring God more glory or would it create a community of robotic super-Christians that always does everything without sin?

Out of my own experience, I can say that only deliberate prayer to the Spirit within me for help has conquered temptation, and it has worked every single time that I have done it. Luke 11:13 “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

What a powerful tool that I just let sit there! And just so you know, I still have to work just as hard to pray this simple prayer in the middle of a temptation, but the difference now is that I’m not trying to beat down my sin with my own strength, but receiving the Spirit in that moment and seeing him free me far above and beyond just a “way of escape”!