November 21, 2025 Devo

Say this out loud: “I will keep my promises.” The psalmist is talking about keeping promises to God, and that’s a great place to start. We often make promises to give more, serve more, read His Word more, and share Christ with our friends more. Are you living up to those promises? We make promises to worship more, get in a group, and deal with that one area that we know we need to overcome. Are you living up to those promises? What are one or two promises you have made to God this year that you need to stop making excuses for and just DO? I don’t think God is going to kick you to the curb for not living up to them, but don’t you think it would bless Him if you actually DID what you said you would do? I believe it would bless you, too.
How about promises to your family? Are there any promises that you’ve made to them but aren’t keeping? Maybe it’s simple stuff, like the promise to fix something that you’ve never made time to fix. Or the promise to clean out that room, or clean out the garage, or paint those walls. It could be that the promises are a little more significant than that, like taking more time for them, being more involved with them, or being less critical of them. Any of those promises still waiting for fulfillment? Maybe you promised that you’d quit drinking, quit smoking, or quit gambling. I know it’s hard, but are your spouse or kids still waiting for you to live up to one of those? We often get frustrated when our family is skeptical when we say we’re going to do something. But maybe we’ve given them good reason. Time to live up to those promises.
Here’s another one. What promises have you made to YOURSELF that you’re not making good on? How about a promise to lose weight, start exercising, or eat more healthily? How about a promise to read more and watch TV less? How about the promise you made to yourself to go back to school and finish that degree? How about the promise to finally face that addiction and go to recovery, or go to counseling, or go to a group to get help? How about the promise to make things right between you and that person you’ve been at odds with for way too long? Sometimes our biggest life breakthroughs are living up to promises we made to ourselves.
Promises are beautiful, sacred covenants. They can be the stake in the ground that propels us forward to take helpful, life-changing, and relationship-changing action. When we live up to our promises, we strengthen our commitments, gain trust from those we made them to, and feel infinitely better about ourselves. So, fulfill your promises to God. Live up to those promises to your family. Follow through with those promises to yourself. Don’t be just a Promise Maker. It’s time to be a Promise Keeper! That’s God’s Word for you today.