The father says to his two sons, come and help me in the vineyard today. One son says Yes, I will go. But he does not. The other son says I won’t go. But then he does. Which son does the will of the father?
Neither son does what they say. Both sons say one thing and do another. But one of the sons actually does what the father asked, whereas the other one simply said they would, then did’t.
How often are we like this?
In the world with our relationships with people, and in our prayers, in our relationship with God.
How often do we say to people we will do something, then we don’t do it. As Christians this is a serious matter. If there is a discrepancy between what we say and what we do, we are showing ourselves to be unfaithful even to our own words.
If we do not do what we say we will, that makes us like the first son, and it makes us little better than untruthful. It can be very easy to agree to something, to say we’ll make that phone call, then not, to say we will check in on that friend, then not, to say we will do something, then not. It easily becomes habit, and it is a sin and a clear sign of lack of value of our own words, a lack of respect for the truth. If we lack respect for the truth we are either backsliding or fallen. Truth is paramount.
And if we take our words with other people so casually, how much more so do we discount our own words in prayer?
Perhaps even God discounts them.
When we show in our dealings with man that we are not people of truth, how then will God believe us?
And what example does it set, and what does it suggest to our fellow man?
If we say we will do something, and do not, that shows us to be un trustworthy.
So when we then speak about God to that person, why would they believe us?
Speaking truth, and acting on the truth, and being true to our words all vital.
If we cannpt be trusted with small things, even our own words, how can we be trusted with big things, great things, things of God?
