“Who shall ascend into the
hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his
holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up
his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.” (Ps 24:3-4 AV)
The swearing which is spoken
of here is swearing a vow. Making a
promise one may have intended to keep at the time, but in reality, chooses not
to once the vowing us over. My thoughts
went to the altar call. One wonders how
many vows are made there that fail to have deep and lasting roots. I am all for an altar call. It would be better to go to an altar than not
at all. This is not a treatise against the
use of the altar call. What we are
contemplating this day is the times we have vowed or sought forgiveness when in
the deepest places of our heart, we really had no intention of changing to
begin with. Or, at the very least,
because of conviction, we did have a desire.
However, once the guilt and pressure of conviction was assuaged, then
the desire to overcome also abated.
We have to remind ourselves
that God sees everything. He even sees
the true condition of the heart. He
knows of what quality our vows truly are.
He understands the motivation behind to vow. He sees the truth of how deeply that vow is
rooted. Several times I have gone to my
knees and ask the LORD’s forgiveness, promising to strive harder and yield to
the influence of the Holy Spirit so that I may be more successful in living to
the pleasure of God the Father. It has
happened frequently. However, in the depth
of my soul, there were times when I knew that once the service was over, or
once the time of prayer concluded, the old man would again rear his ugly head
to the end of another failure. There
were times when I sought the LORD’s mercy in one area knowing full well I was
failing in a different area.
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