Yesterday’s devotional was about being a person of your word. I said that people who keep their promises keep track of their promises.

It makes total sense. If you’re going to be a person who is trustworthy and who keeps their promises, you have to know what they are. You need to keep track of them. It’s hard to keep a promise you’ve forgotten.

So, what have you promised? Maybe it’s a promise you made when you were baptized, or became a Christian. Maybe it was a promise to a spouse, or to a child or friend.

When you take these big commitments seriously, an added bonus is that it impacts how you think about your DAILY words and promises too. Words and promises like…

-“I’m going to come over and see you.”
-“You can count on me to be there when you go through a hard time.”
-“I’ll pray for you.”
-“I’ll do my best to be at home tonight so we can have some quality time.”

Writing in Colossians 3:9-10 Paul says, “Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.”

Our honesty shows that we are trying to be faithful to our Creator in whose image we are made.

So take your big promises and commitments seriously. And take your daily promises and commitments seriously too.

As the great theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “a disciple must be a light even in his words.”

By Matthew Ruttan

• Today’s “Up!” is based on my latest podcast, Part 1 in a new series called “My Word.” – How to be a person of your word in a world of verbal mistrust.” Listen in here!
• The quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer is from his book The Cost of Discipleship
• Bible quotes are from the New International Version