“I am the Alpha and the Omega. The Beginning and the End” (Revelation 1:8, 22:13).

In our lives we often look back to times past and consider all that has happened to us. Many of us, when we were young sang, “I surrender all” and “Whatever the cost” in our churches, and many prayed deep prayers of commitment. “I will go wherever you want me to go Lord and do whatever you ask!” But the Bible warns: ‘Do not be rash with your mouth and let not your heart utter anything hastily before God’ (Ecclesiastes 5:2).

Sometimes those prayers and promises seem like they were made a very long time ago. However, God does not live ‘inside’ of time, like we do. On earth we have a linear experience of time - our life begins, it flows daily and one day it will end. However, as God lives outside of our experience of time, our vows and promises to Him are still very real in eternity and binding in the present!

The prayers and vows that we made to God (to obey Him with all of our hearts), are as real today to Him, as the day when we made them many years ago!

God is the Beginning and the End, and therefore the passing of the days, months and years does not influence Him. With this in mind, those vows still exist in eternity, as if they were said by us today! This is one of the reasons why God hates divorce, because He hears the vows made ‘before God’ and the announcement of divorce together in eternity. In eternity (which is outside of our experience of time), it’s like saying, “I covenant to be with you forever and I want to be divorced” in the same sentence!

As we are the Bride of Christ, waiting for our marriage to Him, our vows and covenants are even more important because they are binding for eternity. When one makes a vow in marriage, that person shapes his or her earthly life. But when we vow a Christian vow…it will exist in eternity and will shape our eternal life! Either we kept our vow, or we forgot it.

Meanwhile, God does not forget what we prayed because He lives in the eternal timeless realm. Prophecy can be exact because God has already seen the end from the beginning. He can tell us what is ahead, because He is already seeing it!

It is important for Christians to go back and consider the vows and promises which we made to God. Are we keeping them? Are we still true to our words? Our final thought must be from the Bible: ‘When you make a vow to God, do not delay to pay it. For He has not pleasure in fools. Pay what you have vowed – better not to vow than to vow and not pay’ (Ecclesiastes 5:4-5).

Paul Backholer

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Paul is the author of:
Jesus Today Go
Holy Spirit Power Go
The Exodus Evidence Go
The Ark of the Covenant Go
How Christianity Made the Modern World Go
Heaven - A Journey to Paradise and the Heavenly City Go