Sep 22, 2015

Commitment

by Steven Moncrief

Shiloh SDB Church, NJ

The dictionary says that commitment is a promise to do or give something, a promise to be loyal to someone or something, the attitude of someone who works very hard to do or support something.

Does commitment still exist today? Can we still find people today that we can call committed people? Are you and I committed to the Lord, to our church, to each other? Many times we look around and see a world that has thrown this word out the window — with the exception of being committed to self. Even in our churches, many times we attend the Sabbath service, yes we become a member, but are we committed to being a vital part of its ministry? Are we committed to putting God and the work of His Church first in our lives, ahead of our personal desires? If you say that you are going to do something, do other people know for a fact that it will be done, or do they see you go off and do something else that strikes your fancy, leaving God’s work undone? Psalms 37:5 says, “Commit your ways to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.” Proverbs 16:3 says, “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.” And in 1 Peter 4:19 it says, “So then those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.”

Commitment is not a word that we should take lightly. When we commit ourselves to a task, we need to put our all into it and be sure that we complete it to the best of our ability. When we commit ourselves to the Lord’s work, we have a special responsibility to succeed — through that commitment we are representing not only ourselves but we are representatives of the Church and the Lord himself. He has told us that He will never leave us or forsake us. He will be there with us each step of the way if we commit ourselves to Him.

I would like to tell you of someone who made a commitment and then stuck to that commitment even though everyone would have agreed that it was above and beyond the call of duty. When we were asked to host the 2015 Conference in Lancaster, PA, I knew that we would need a bus driver to transport the youth from PreCon at Jersey Oaks to Lancaster; to transport the kids to youth activities at Conference; take a busload of people to Sight and Sound. In 2009, we had two people who could do this. This time we had only one. I asked my sister-in-law, Jan Moncrief, if she would be willing to drive the bus and she said yes. Fast forward to this spring — I found out that Jan had to have an ankle replacement on her left foot the first week of July. My thought was, “What will we do now?” Well, the surgery was completed and she rested. She told me that she didn’t use her left foot to drive and that she had committed to driving the bus and that she would still do it — with God’s help she did. You didn’t see her around much because she had to go back to the motel in the evenings and put her foot up and rest it. I didn’t know until after we were home just how much that was hurting her and how nasty-looking the incision was. But through it all she had a smile on her face and a praise for the Lord.

Commitment. That is commitment. Are you and I ready to complete our commitments under conditions like that?

Thanks Jan for showing us what real commitment is like. God is good!