COVENANT LIARS!

I was driving home from work this morning and listening to Kris Valotton on "Loyalty". I am blown away b y the message. So, true.
He talks about something God has been speaking to me too for a while now: about keeping our covenants aka keeping our word.
Now many of us make a distinction between covenant and keeping our word, but the more I study and read and listen to other great Christians, the more I believe that covenant=keeping your word. See, God is a covenant God..when He says something He doesn't lie. He never takes His word back because then we couldn't trust Him, right? If constantly changed His mind then how can we believe His promises? A promise is not a promise anymore unless it doesnt change. A promise is something one can rely on and hold unto as truth forever.
Kris was talking about how if we are people without principles we live without keeping our covenant. But when there are principles engrained in the very fiber of our beings then we will live up to our word no matter what because we are loyal.
He talks about how loyalty means to be faithful to someone even when we do not agree with them. It is loving unconditionally because you love the person not what they do. So many of us want God to love us as we are and accept us for US, yet we do not show the same kindness and love to our own spouses!
So many Christians are not loyal. They leave their spouses because of their outward actions. They are not loyal to the person, but only while they act right and do things right.
God is a covenant God. Marriage is a covenant. You gave your word to love, cherish, and take care of someone till death, yet we see a running "new horse" in town and we forget about our word and run after the next horse. In fact God sais it in the Bible that men are neighing after their neighbors' wives...Ouch! What a picture!
I am divorced and not by choice, but I realized that a lot of it was my fault,too. I havent been loyal and live up to the covenant I made with my husband. I did not keep my word to cherish him, love him unconditionally, and honor him. It doesn't mean that the covenant doesn't exist anymore.
See, Kris talks about how Joshua was told by God to cross the Jordan and then take over the people there and commanded him NOT to make any covenants with those people. The Bible says that some of those people disguised themselves to look like they were from far away not the neighbors ( which truly they were) and LIED to Joshua abotu who they were and asked him to make covenant with them. And Joshua did. By the time he realized those were the people God told him to take over, it was too late. Joshua told God that he was going to kill them then, but God commanded him not to do that because now he gave his word..he made a covenant. See, covenant means giving your word and God takes it seriously. I mean God wanted Joshua to kill those people but once Joshua made a covenant with them then he had to let them live. God didn't allow Joshua to break his word...Joshua wanted to, but God wouldnt accept it.
Makes me think about marriage a lot. You gave your word to eb with your spouse...so what are you doing being "married" to another and thinking you made a covenant and have to keep it. Can't you see that God doesnt accept one to break his first word...there is already a covenant in place and you cannot ignore it and just say " sorry I made a covenant" because God is a word keeper and we need to be like Him, too. He will never ask you to do something that condradicts His word and character.
Psalm 15 clearly says that a righteous will NOT take back his word even if he loses because of it. The question then is not if you should keep your word to the second "spouse", but how can you not keep your word to the first one because you already have a covenant in place and God will not take into consideration your other "so called covenant".
I have been struggling with this myself daily. God has told me that I change my mind too much and I need to keep my word even when I realize I was foolish in making promises. I am much more careful now then about making a promise or a covenant now.
We have to be wise what we say. Anyway, Kris was describing how these people that God didnt allow Joshua to kill after he told them he wouldnt' were the Gibionites.
Later Saul becomes king of Israel and he kills them. Oops.... David comes to the throne and they ahd famine and things were going bad and so David decides to ask God why? And God told him that they killed the Gibionites which whom they made covenant and that's why. It wasnt David who did it, but his ancestors. They were suffering the consequences of the sins of previous people.
We cannot play games with God. Our sin will affect others. Your sin will affect your child, your wife, generations to come.
God wants us to keep our word once we gave it. The first word. You cannot say like Joshua , " Well, I didnt know how bad it was going to get; or I didnt knwo they were my enemies..so I will just back up on my word and get out of here or destroy them". God says, " Keep the covenant". "Keep your word".
You cannot make a vow to another person while your spouse is alive or ex. Ex...a term that doesnt exist in the Bible. And another thing that saddens my heart is that so many divorced people want to stay with the new person they found without considering God and that He says, he hates divorce. He hates it if you are divorced from your first spouse..the only one that God considers as a matter of fact your spouse. If He hates it that you are gone, why do you love it so much? Why do you love being with the other person more than what God says? If you love what God hates, are you on His side or the enemy's then?
God takes our words seriously. You cannot make another covenant...another promise that cancels out the first one. God doesnt allow it. You are representing HIm. He doesnt ever back off on His word..why do you?