Count The Cost!

“Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart” Col.4:2

“When you make a promise to God, don’t delay in following through, for God takes no pleasure in fools. Keep all the promises you make to him. It is better to say nothing than to make a promise and not keep it. Don’t let your mouth make you sin. And don’t defend yourself by telling the Temple messenger that the promise you made was a mistake. That would make God angry, and he might wipe out everything you have achieved. Talk is cheap, like daydreams and other useless activities. Fear God instead” Ecc.5:4-7.

I know someone that told God, “Prosper me! I just want to work for ‘x’ number of years then I will become a missionary”. I do not know why he made that vow but that was his vow. God prospered him and he got a fantastic job and was making good money. And then ‘x’ number of years passed. Then he came to me, told me about the vow he made to God and was saying, “How am I going to leave all these things and become a missionary?” “…It is better to say nothing than to make a promise and not keep it”. Why make such a vow? “…don’t delay in following through…” Delay is the deception of the devil in keeping and ensnaring people with vows un-kept. You keep delaying and telling yourself that you will do it meanwhile it is speaking against you in heaven. “…for God takes no pleasure in fools” .

The third thing to note about Hannah’s prayer is Hannah’s attitude. Please read 1 Sam.1:12-16. Imagine going through that much pain and the person that is supposed to know better, the person that is supposed to be spiritual and a discerning man of God, accuses you of being drunk. A lot of people, a lot of ladies will curse the man in their hearts. “Useless man! He is not even spiritual. Shouldn’t he be able to tell my prayer point before I open my mouth? But not Hannah! What if Hannah had allowed the pain to make her bitter? One thing I have discovered in this walk with God is that people will dislike you because they dislike God. People will be angry with you because they are angry with God. Some times God actually says to me don’t mind them, it is me they are angry with. Yet this was Hannah before Eli who was like God’s representative and she didn’t react negatively. If her heart were in a wrong place, she would have been nasty to Eli. Then called him later to apologize. The apology would go something like this, “Eli I was really nasty earlier. Please do not be angry, it was just how I was feeling”. But what is out is out and what is gone is gone.

Prayer: Holy Spirit, please teach me to devote myself to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart, in Jesus Name.