Keep your vows to God

God is not our buddy. If you ever make a vow to God, make sure that you repay it. If you don’t do it you are sure to be very, very sorry. I speak from grave personal experience. I want to read for you from Ecclesiastes 5:4-5 He says “When you make a vow to God, do not be late in paying it; for He takes no delight in fools. Pay what you vow! It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay.”
When you are in trouble and you ask God to help you with something and you make a promise, make sure that you repay, it is better not to make a vow. We read in the Book of Judges about a man who made such a vow to God and it was very bitter for him to repay it. Jephthah was one of the judges of Israel. We read in Judges 11:34 What happened is that Jephthah promised God that if God would give him the victory over the foes, that the first thing, the first one that came to him from his house, the first thing, he would sacrifice and Jephthah had one only daughter and when He came back from his victory, she came out to dad and Jephthah had to sacrifice her to God because he promised it. I read from :34-35 “When Jephthah came to his house at Mizpah, behold, his daughter was coming out to meet him with tambourines and with dancing. Now she was his one and only child; besides her he had neither son nor daughter. And it came about that when he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low, and you are among those who trouble me; for I have given my word to God, and I cannot take it back." It is a very sad story, she went and she mourned and then she came back and he had to pay his vow, he sacrificed her to God. It is horrible. We see that :39-40 "and it came about that at the end of two months that she returned to her father, who did to her according to the vow which he had made; and she had no relations with a man. Thus it became a custom in Israel, that the daughters of Israel went yearly to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in the year.” Sad story, I’ve got my own sad story which I want to share with you also. When I was about 14 years old, a cousin of mine was in a severe car accident and she lay in hospital and she was in a coma and I made a promise to God. I prayed for my cousin and she was also about 15 years old at the time. There was no hope for her, I promised God, I said:"Lord, if you, if you heal Thea, and bring her back then I will dedicate my life to you and I will spread the Gospel, I will go and I will be Your servant." God healed her miraculously, there was no hope for her.  It was medically impossible for her to recover, it was a miracle. She is still alive today, but I did not keep my promise. I was a serious Christian at that stage, but young and I became backslidden at the age of about 20, severely backslidden. I got married, I had children, I carried on with my life. I lived like God did not exist, although I knew God well. I just went away from God and when I was 29 years old, married, kids, 2 little boys. I got a phone call at work, there been an accident and my wife was in that accident and they took her to hospital. And when I stood in that hospital severely backslidden, away from Jesus, that scene with my cousin came back to me, because here was my wife and she was in a very bad condition.
I knew it was speaking to me, came back to me, I had made a vow to God and I made a promise and I never kept it. It was talking to me and my wife was terminal and I knew all along that I hadn’t kept my vow. Three weeks later she passed away, she never recover, she never came out of her coma. She was also in a terminal condition. I never repaid my vow but more than 10 years later I stood at the grave of my wife, I was a widower with two little boys, 3 years old and 9 months old, I didn’t repay my vow, I was foolish.
I came back to God later but I want to warn you today, friends from my own experience, don’t mess with God, don’t play with God, it is serious business. If you have made a vow to God, keep it. If you have made a vow to a spouse before God, keep it. God is not mocked my friends, don’t make vows, don’t swear that is why it is written: Do not swear neither by the Heaven nor by the earth. Let your ye be ye and your nay be nay. Do not swear, take God seriously. If you have made a vow, repay it and don’t be foolish like I was, I made a vow. I thank God that He extended His Hand of mercy to me. I repented, I came back to Jesus and I am serving God but I paid for my folly, for my foolishness.
Before my wife passed away, she knew she was, she was going to die, because she kept on telling me about a month before she died that she said: I am not going to be here for long. I said why she said I am going to be with my granny, my granny is in Heaven. I said to her: don’t be foolish man, don’t talk nonsense , she knew it and I think she was prepared. But people don’t play with God, take God seriously. God is not our buddy, He is God Almighty. Don’t take a vow if you don’t intend keeping it. Just a warning from a friend and brother in Jesus. Jesus bless you.