Pay Your Vows

Make vows to the LORD your God, and pay them; let all who are around Him bring presents to Him who ought to be feared. Psalm 76:11

No lie can serve the purposes of God. Knowing the truth and not living it is a lie in itself. Knowing you gave your word and not keeping it is living a lie. God holds us accountable for every word we speak, even if men don’t. “But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment” (Matt. 12:36). To be a person of truth and integrity, we must keep our promises to God and man. God is looking for people who are lovers of truth. “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him” (John 4:23).

A mediocre life, lost opportunities, lack of favor and burdened minds are often the result of broken promises. “A curse without cause shall not alight” (Prov. 26:2). There is a cause for every curse. Sometimes we need to think back, fi nd what idle words we have spoken, what vows we have made to God and broken, what promises to our families we have not kept, and repent so we can be rid of the results of walking after the fl esh and not after the Spirit.

Paul warns us that in the last days, people will backslide because they would rather live a lifestyle of lies. “Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron” (1 Tim. 4:1-2). To withstand these wiles of the devil, believers must put on the girdle of truth, which is a part of the armor of God (Eph. 6:14).

A girdle is a belt that lifts up the garment (that hangs down) and gets it out of our way so that we can move our legs freely. Otherwise, the long garment may impede our movement or even trip us up. In the Christian life, this girdle is truth. We can never do anything for God unless we have made a decision to walk in truth—in total honesty. Pretense, hypocrisy, unrealism, believing in a lie or living in a fantasy are like long garments that will frustrate and hinder our movements.

Thus, to wear the girdle of truth is to take off the mask of pretense and make a decision to walk in truth. Let us therefore repent from lying and begin to hold on to a lifestyle of truth.