What is your word worth?

When you say that you will do something or that you will take responsibility for something, what do the people around you think?

Have you built a reputation as someone not likely to keep commitments, or have you built a reputation as someone that is rock solid on doing what you said you would do.

I love the practicality of the book of James and in chapter 5, verse 12 James lays down a very simple and basic principle that we should all strive to apply to every conversation that we have.

Verse 12 says this...

"Above all, my brothers, do not swear - not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Let your "Yes" be yes and your "No" be no or you will be condemned."

Your ability to commit to what you say you will speaks volumes into your personal honesty and integrity.

People will begin to make assumptions about you and you will be judged by what you say, or as James says, you may be condemned. Many of us can think of at least one time when we relied on someone to hold up their end up and failed.

Personally, I can recall too many times throughout high school where I was involved in group projects and was let down by a select few. As a result, our entire group was graded poorly for our inability to do what we initially set out to accomplish.

Our ability to keep the commitments that we make to others only furthers our ability to share Christ with them. I

f they see us as trustworthy and committed in a non-Christian, non-religious context, not having to persuade by taking oaths, then our ability to speak to our commitment to Christ will hold much more weight.

Final Thought: The bottom line is that we need to be honest in everything that we say so that people will know unquestionably that what we say is the absolute truth.