When it comes to making a promise to the Lord we must be careful as the same we are with the simple act of praying to the Lord. Many people think they know how to pray but soon lose sight of our basic guideline that was given to us to follow. The Lords Prayer is the prime example of how to pray to Him because it covers all the important matters and guides us towards asking for strength in our hour of need and acceptance. It starts by addressing God as our Father in heaven, that although His name is honored, and above all other names, we are His children. As such, we occupy a place of privilege, and He wants us to spend time in prayer with Him.
The Lords Prayer then moves on to pray that God's Kingdom, or rule, will become the norm on earth, replacing human rules and governments, which too often are driven by greed and power. Only then do we turn to our own needs, and ask our Father for our basic human needs to be satisfied, and that He would forgive the wrong things that we have done. We ask for God's guidance and protection as we journey through life. Finally we turn back to God, and acknowledge His supremacy and position as the Almighty ruler. We must be cautious with promises to the Lord because we must make sure that we are not bartering or making a deal/pact with him. It is okay to promise the Lord something and to know that you will try your best to achieve it; however, it should be something that is recognized as a ‘bettering’_if you will, of the soul. We simply do not make a ‘deal’ with the Lord because we are taught through our earthly guide that he has left for us, to trust in Him (reference of reality: Matthew 14 <mainly 30-32>). We should always trust that the Lord is near us and trust that he will take care of His children and so when we are in a point of despair, we pray for strength and do not bargain because we are not divine and we are not perfect…we are humans-as the Lord intended us to be. We all falter in times of despair…it is up to us to realize which path to take from there (reference of reality: psalm 34-18-20).
Once we make a promise to the Lord out of despair and weakness the only way to open that promise is to mend and realize that it was a weakness in our faith and in our trust in Him that he would take care of us and the situation at hand. We must ask him for forgiveness in doubting our trust in Him and then it will be up to him to decide if we our allowed to open our ‘deal.’ We must promise to stay strong and only to pray for strength in the future and let him know that we have learned our lessen that deals with the Lord on any high effective level should never be made; fore you never know what the future holds….it is His future that he has created for you and He will place things in your path to help you realize that you should have trusted in him all along. If this is not realized then you will serve out the limitations placed on your ‘deal’ and the lesson will be learned soon after….as long as you are one who has learned to trust in Him. If you ask for forgiveness for your weakness and doubt in Him then he will forgive and open your life back up to be lived without blinders on your pathway to the gates of His Kingdom.
Inspired by Thomas Merton:
The man of impure intentions may not clearly realize that he is deceiving himself. Blinded by his own selfishness, he cannot even see that he is blinded. The hesitation that divides him between God’s will and his own is by no means clear. It does not involve a practical choice between two clearly seen alternatives. It plunges him into a confusion of doubtful choices, a welter of possibilities. If he had enough interior peace to listen to his own conscience, he would hear it telling him that he does not really know what he is doing. He realizes obscurely that if he knew himself better he would be less likely to deceive himself. He knows that he is blindly following his own selfish ideas, under cover of motives he had not taken time to examine. But he does not really want to examine them, because if he did so he might find out that his will and the will of God were directly opposed to one another. He might discover that there was no alternative for him but to do the will of God, which he does not really want to do.