Exploring promises as a tool of growth. Part 6

Exploring promises as a tool of growth

Part 6: A promise creates an arena in which God is honoured

The promise concentrates our mind wonderfully. We have already acknowledged that it’s not the be all and end all of our spiritual lives, but it is the thing that we are concentrating on at the moment in response to the question, “What will you do to show that you love God?”. Well, out of the many things that we could do, let’s choose something that is of particular concern to us, and make a promise about it. This becomes a rallying call in times of trial and temptation, and a test of our spiritual integrity and commitment that will most probably improve our life in other areas too, but on this specific promise it becomes the place where we have drawn a line in the sand: “I love God, and for love of him, I will do this”.

When we succeed – and succeed we will increasingly do – instead of that repetitive cycle of despair and disappointment, we will gain spiritual energy and pleasure, and all the gifts that come from walking closely with God and not grieving his Spirit. We will, at last, grow in grace and in spiritual maturity, and be ready to expand the areas which our promise covers. I think this may be a particularly fruitful aspect of making and keeping promises: although it may appear that we are confining our spiritual lives to one tiny area and assessing our progress on just this one point, we are, instead, lifting ourselves out of a morass or mist of spiritual turmoil and gaining grip and focus by defining an area in which we will honour God. As keeping our promise becomes an engine of spiritual growth, we can use the new energy generated to expand the arena in our life in which God’s will holds sway. Having used our promise to say, “This little bit of my life belongs to God and I will not surrender it” then, as we keep our promise, we are able to press forward the boundaries to reclaim other areas of our lives, until, one day, by God’s grace, we may be able to say that our whole lives have come under the sway of God’s loving care and his will is honoured in all we do. So, what may have seemed like a surrender to just focus our spiritual life on this one promise, was, in fact, a gathering of our resources to burst out to reclaim the whole of our life for God.