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T O D A Y    G O D    I S    F I R S T
                  Marketplace Meditations
                       by Os Hillman

The Value of Words

And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair
white or black. Simply let your "Yes" be "Yes," and your "No,"
"No"; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.
- (Matthew 5:36-37)


Imagine for a moment that you are living in Jesus' time. It is
before Jesus has begun His public ministry. He is a carpenter in
your local town of Nazareth. You have asked Jesus to make a table
for you. You're on a deadline and you must have it in a week. You
agree on the price of for the table and the date of one week for
completion. A week later you arrive to pick up the table. You lay
your money down on the table and Jesus says, "Mr. Johnson, I am
sorry but the table is not ready. I ran into complications. Also,
I can no longer honor the price I gave you. It is now instead of
."

Two years later you hear about this same Jesus who is preaching
to the local townspeople. How are you going to view this Jesus?
You probably won't give much credence to His message because of
your personal experience. Our lives have an ability to reinforce
the message we stand for, or they can violate it and make it
totally ineffective. This literally happens all over the world in
different settings with Christian businesspeople. Our message
becomes ineffective because we have not done what we said.

I know people who, when they tell me they plan to do something, I
can expect them to follow through about 50 percent of the time. I
am sure you have had the same experience. Words and commitments
are made with little meaning behind those words. However, I know
others who will follow through almost every time. The only time
they don't is when something falls outside their control. I
quickly learn whose words have substance behind them.

There are times when we are unable to perform or deliver what we
promised due to outside influences. The key to turning these
potentially negative circumstances into a witness for Christ is
communication. If we are unable to pay a bill on time, we must
communicate with those we owe and make a good faith effort to
resolve it within our means. In these cases, God's purposes are
being performed as well if we seek to do the right thing.

Do your words mean anything to those who hear them? Do you make
commitments and fail to follow through on them? What would others
say about how you follow through? Ask the Lord today to show you
how you are doing in this area. You might even want to ask three
people who are the closest to you how you fare in this area.

* * * * * * * * * * * * Author's Note * * * * * * * * * * *

How do you develop plans? Is the pro and con method of
decision making biblical? What does the bible say about
how to plan? Read Os Hillman's free article Planning &
Decisionmaking: A Biblical Approach. To receive a free
article via email, send your name, address, city,
state zip to planning@quicktell.com

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Published and distributed by Crosswalk.com, this daily devotional is
written by Os Hillman (os@marketplaceleaders.org).  Os is president of
Marketplace Leaders, an Atlanta based ministry teaching Biblical
principles for career and business success.  He offers a FREE newsletter
and other resources at:
http://www.marketplaceleaders.org

Order "TGIF: Today God I s  First" - 365 daily meditations to motivate
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Mail: 3520 Habersham Club Drive, Cumming, Georgia 30041 USA.


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