“I will never leave you nor forsake you…I love you with an everlasting love…” Hebrews 13:5. There are over 7,000 of these vows!
Now it is your turn. If you find yourself scrambling for words, that is normal. How could I possibly make better vows than God? The truth is, you can’t, but, because He desires a successful marriage with you, He doesn’t leave you silent at the altar.
He instead tells you His expectations. His commandments become your vows to Him.
In John 14:15, Jesus says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
Obedience is the fruit of your love for God. “Because I love Him, I will not have other gods, or steal, or kill, etc. (Exodus 20:1-17). This is what your vows will look like.
But how can I keep them if I am sinful? The reality is, we are all inherently sinful. We violate our vows to God everyday (James 2:10). In our flesh, we can’t love God the way He asks to be loved.
Thankfully, in the verses following John 14:15, Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit will help us keep His commandments. Be encouraged, you aren’t doing it in your strength. When you accept the help, the law will no longer seem overbearing.
The bottom line: God didn’t create the law to restrict us, but instead to teach us how to live in love with Him and His creation! Ezekiel 36:26–27 affirms this:
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees.”
When you accept the help, the law will no longer seem overbearing. As Romans 8:3–4 puts it: “For what the law was powerless to do… God did by sending his own Son… in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us.”
And again, Psalm 119:32 gives us this promise:
“I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free.”