CHALLENGE TO COMMITMENT

The year 2009 has now become history just as yesterday has also. 2009 was just a series of days passing one at a time and now they have become memories. Each new year tends to bring a new assortment of resolutions by multitudes, only to be forgotten in a few passing days, and never to be remembered. I hope you are not one for making resolutions. Most of them are the result of a current emotion. You just looked at your size or thought about a habit or had emotional guilt about something and quickly made a statement without resolve in your heart. Words without total commitment are wasted, for they soon vanish from our thoughts.

Most of us have problems with our spirit because it is controlled and manipulated by our emotions, rather than by the Word of God. We are hasty to be angry, continue to harbor hate, and are slow to forgive. Knowing these things, we make a resolution to improve our behavior and our attitude (on our own).

I want to challenge you in 2010 to make a commitment, not a resolution. In the Old Testament and the New, the words that are translated ‘commit’ mean to deposit in trust.

I want to challenge you to do what David and Jesus did. (Psalms 31:5; Luke 23:46 ) They committed their spirit into the hand of the Lord. He has redeemed us, He bought us. We need to commit our spirit into His hand so that He  (not our emotions) rules it. The just live by faith (what they know), not by sight or feelings. Secondly, I challenge you to do as David said in Psalms 37:5, “commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in Him and He shall bring it to pass”. Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths”.

If you will commit your spirit into the hand of the Lord and commit your way unto the Lord, there will be no need for resolutions. To commit is to resolve, to make up your mind to do it. Resolutions are only as good as your commitment. No commitment equals no results.

Jesus was committed to the will of the Father and He did not let men persuade Him or sway Him to change His focus or His commitment; neither should we. We are not out to win popularity contests, we are out to win the approval of our Heavenly Father. Commitment is companion to pain. Jesus, James, Peter, Paul and John all suffered the pain of commitment to the will of the Word. Resolutions tend to be abandoned when pain shows up. Commitment digs in, holds on, and pushes forward, confident in the One they are serving to have the ability to uphold them because of what they have deposited in His hand. The pain may be acute, but it’s worth it in the end. Peter said in I Peter 4:19 “Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to Him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator”.

So I challenge you to start and finish 2010 committing your spirit and your way unto the Lord, that allows Him to direct your path. When we allow the Lord to do the directing and accept His will, He is faithful to the faithful to deliver him out of all his trouble. 2010 will challenge you and shake you, if you can be shaken. Those that are grounded and rooted in Christ and committed to His cause cannot be moved. Don’t let failure to be devoted to resolutions destroy you, let your commitment to Christ strengthen you into being a conqueror!

Rick Humphreys,
Vice Chairman
Associated Brotherhood of Christians