Daily Devotionals

Would You Rather? Week 5 Wednesday

It is better to say nothing than to make a promise and not keep it. Ecclesiastes 5:5

My four-year-old nephew, Owen, just started preschool this year. His dad, my brother, recently found out that he had started telling people in his class that he had a pet snake at his house. When his dad confronted him about it and asked if he had told his class that he had a pet snake at home, Owen laughed and said, “Yeah, dad, I did.” He laughed about it, but Owen did not realize that his words mean nothing if they are not backed up by actions. He would have been in deep trouble if he was asked to bring his pet snake to show and tell or if a friend from school came over to his house and asked to see his pet. You see, he has yet to learn what you and I already know: talk is cheap if our actions do not match our words. Part of faithfulness is being intentional with our words and meaning exactly what we say.

The book of Ecclesiastes is one of the books of the Bible known as wisdom literature. This book offers wisdom about many aspects of life, including our words. “It is better to say nothing than to make a promise and not keep it,” Ecclesiastes 5:5 says. If you are reading this verse and feeling a little bit convicted, you are not alone. It is so easy to say the right thing. It is easy to make promises. It is easy to talk about what you believe. Living out your words and putting actions to them can be much more difficult. Because of this, we must practice intentionality with our words and actions if we want to be faithful people. We must carefully think about what we are about to say to be sure that we intend to back up those words with actions. At the same time, we must also hold ourselves accountable to put actions to our words. 

My family and I laughed a lot about my nephew telling his class about his imaginary pet snake. While it was silly, we are teaching him to tell the truth because we want Owen to learn truthfulness and faithfulness, which means letting his words match his actions. Isn’t that what we want for our lives, too? It is time to live in such a way that our walk matches our talk.

Moving Toward Action

It is time today to reflect on God’s call for us to be faithful, particularly with our words. Pull out a notebook or journal and evaluate your own life. When it comes to your words, are you living faithfully? Are your words matching your actions, or do you see inconsistencies? After journaling, pray. Tell God you are sorry for any inconsistencies you have found, and ask God for the courage to live even more faithfully.

Going Deeper

Read Ecclesiastes 5:1-19 (NLT)

As you enter the house of God, keep your ears open and your mouth shut. It is evil to make mindless offerings to God. Don’t make rash promises, and don’t be hasty in bringing matters before God. After all, God is in heaven, and you are here on earth. So let your words be few.

Too much activity gives you restless dreams; too many words make you a fool.

When you make a promise to God, don’t delay in following through, for God takes no pleasure in fools. Keep all the promises you make to him. It is better to say nothing than to make a promise and not keep it. Don’t let your mouth make you sin. And don’t defend yourself by telling the Temple messenger that the promise you made was a mistake. That would make God angry, and he might wipe out everything you have achieved.

Talk is cheap, like daydreams and other useless activities. Fear God instead.

Don’t be surprised if you see a poor person being oppressed by the powerful and if justice is being miscarried throughout the land. For every official is under orders from higher up, and matters of justice get lost in red tape and bureaucracy. Even the king milks the land for his own profit!

Those who love money will never have enough. How meaningless to think that wealth brings true happiness! The more you have, the more people come to help you spend it. So what good is wealth—except perhaps to watch it slip through your fingers!

People who work hard sleep well, whether they eat little or much. But the rich seldom get a good night’s sleep.

There is another serious problem I have seen under the sun. Hoarding riches harms the saver. Money is put into risky investments that turn sour, and everything is lost. In the end, there is nothing left to pass on to one’s children. We all come to the end of our lives as naked and empty-handed as on the day we were born. We can’t take our riches with us.

And this, too, is a very serious problem. People leave this world no better off than when they came. All their hard work is for nothing—like working for the wind. Throughout their lives, they live under a cloud—frustrated, discouraged, and angry.

Even so, I have noticed one thing, at least, that is good. It is good for people to eat, drink, and enjoy their work under the sun during the short life God has given them, and to accept their lot in life. And it is a good thing to receive wealth from God and the good health to enjoy it. To enjoy your work and accept your lot in life—this is indeed a gift from God.