I want to talk about something that has troubled me for a couple of years. My hobby was to make websites, and I had a couple online. One night, I felt compelled by something to utter a promise to Jesus. A promise to remove my web sites. Feeling compelled by this (thought or whatever it was) I uttered the pledge. At some point afterward, I removed my sites. Afterward, I have speculated whether it was Jesus or another divine being that had urged me to utter the promise. After thinking things through, I have begun to suspect that it wasn’t God who told me to utter the promise. Still, do you think I am still bound to the pledge and as such unable to make websites in the future?<\/p>\n\t
First, you need to be honest. No one compelled you to make this promise. You decided to offer it. It was your own choice. As to why, I do not know. I assume that the sites you were creating were not immoral.<\/p>\n
Assuming that it isn’t a promise that requires you to sin in order to keep it, you have one of two choices concerning rash or foolish promises: You honor your word, or you admit that you made a mistake and apologize to God for speaking without thinking.<\/p>\n
“Do not be rash with your mouth, and let not your heart utter anything hastily before God. For God is in heaven, and you on earth; therefore let your words be few<\/em>” (Ecclesiastes 5:2).<\/p>\n
“For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body<\/em>” (James 3:2).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: I want to talk about something that has troubled me for a couple of years. My hobby was to make websites, and I had a couple online. One night, I felt compelled by something to utter a promise to Jesus. A promise to remove my web sites. Feeling compelled by this (thought or whatever…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[648,647],"class_list":["post-30866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-promises","tag-vows"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":31336,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-a-person-to-keep-a-sinful-promise\/","url_meta":{"origin":30866,"position":0},"title":"Is a person to keep a sinful promise?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I want to know if someone made a sinful promise to God, what happens then? Is the person to keep that promise still? Are we to keep our promises no matter what? Answer: \"Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":40353,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/will-god-forgive-me-for-not-saying-my-prayers-as-i-had-promised\/","url_meta":{"origin":30866,"position":1},"title":"Will God forgive me for not saying my prayers as I had promised?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 21, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I'm 17 years old. My family has always been very secular. For a small period of time, my older sister went to a Catholic school, and I was sent to Sunday school. When I was little I was very much afraid of death and the concept of eternal\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":44843,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-broke-a-promise-upon-my-salvation-does-that-mean-i-cant-be-saved\/","url_meta":{"origin":30866,"position":2},"title":"I broke a promise upon my salvation. Does that mean I can’t be saved?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 10, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I made a promise to God on my salvation and broke it. I accepted Jesus back, but did I lose my salvation because I broke my promise? I made my promise in my mind, so I don't know whether I meant it or not, so please answer if I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49494,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-i-promise-on-something-and-then-break-the-promise-does-god-take-away-what-i-promised-on\/","url_meta":{"origin":30866,"position":3},"title":"If I promise on something and then break the promise, does God take away what I promised on?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 22, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: If I were to promise or swear to God (or even to someone else) on something and not go through with the promise, will God take that thing I promised on away from me? For example, I promise or swear on my friendship that I'll run around the neighborhood.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":48021,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-i-keep-my-promise-of-poverty-that-im-not-certain-i-made\/","url_meta":{"origin":30866,"position":4},"title":"Should I keep my promise of poverty that I’m not certain I made?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 30, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I told God in a prayer that I give up earthly success. I think that when I said it I meant the pursuit of wealth. I am not sure because I think I was also imagining the idea of suffering like a poor person. I think the reason\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27754,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-the-righteous-before-jesus-have-to-wait-for-jesus-death-to-receive-the-promise\/","url_meta":{"origin":30866,"position":5},"title":"Did the righteous before Jesus have to wait for Jesus’ death to receive the promise?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 18, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Does Hebrews 9:15 teach that those that God chose as righteous under the old covenant also had to wait for the blood of Christ for the promise to come into effect? Answer: Salvation to mankind required the offering of a perfect sacrifice for mankind's sins. \"For it is impossible\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30866\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}