Commitment – Where has it gone?

Commitment is a word we undervalue and underestimate in todays culture. Commitment has become a 5 year note on a new car that we will trade off in 3 years. It is a home that we settle in with a 30-year mortgage knowing we won’t live there more than 5 yrs. Commitment is a deadline we agreed to at work knowing we’ll never make it. It appears to me that in today’s culture commitment just means, until I’m done with it. We now live in an instant society that does not cherish or uphold anything because we have lost the value of everything. We trade the credit limit on a piece of plastic for what our heart desires at that moment and we get it at that moment only to be tired of our desire and to throw it away when we are done desiring it. There is no commitment because there is no value. We have lost the art of preparing for and taking care of the things we have worked hard for and fought for. We are a disposable society so much so that even the value of life is disposable. No longer does society think it important to be committed to anything unless it is important to you today. Tomorrow is another day, if it’s no longer important tomorrow then just throw it away. Men we have undervalued our commitments to God and our families and because of it we have a whole generation of orphans growing up and now taking the reins of leadership in our schools, government and churches that do not know the value of family or commitment because it was never shown or given to them. Our divorce rates within the church are as high as rest of society so once again men we have lost sight of being committed husbands and fathers and turned to the instant yet disposable ways of society. Children are fatherless and single parent homes now outnumber the homes of those families with heterosexual married parents. Is there anything that we won’t trade for instant gratification? We’ve thrown away our God, our marriage, and our children. When and where does it stop you ask? It stops with you sir. Stop looking for the next feel good and start taking care of what God has already given you. Stop looking for another woman and start being committed to the wife you have. She is not the only person in the marriage that has changed both mentally and physically. If you think so you might want to buy a new mirror. Commit to being the man that God has designed you to be. Commit to being the husband God has designed you to be. Learn to work on your marriage so that you learn to understand the value of it. Commit to being the father that God has designed you to be. We must learn that commitment is not a dirty word. My Dads parents were married for over 60 years. During that time, they had four children and were called into the ministry to be evangelists and later on pastors. Over 45 years they preached the gospel under tents and in churches all while raising children and watching grandchildren being raised in church because they were committed to the gospel of Jesus Christ and the call that He had placed on their lives. Where has that level of commitment gone? We hear of these times in the bible in 2 Timothy 3:1-7 (ESV) But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God having the appearance of godliness but denying its power. Avoid such people. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sin and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.

Once again men it is time we stand and take our places among the ranks of Godly men that have gone before us. We must commit ourselves to God and lead our families back into the house of God. We are where it starts and we will be where it ends. As men we must take back our places and responsibilities in the family and the church. You have the ability and were designed to do great things for the kingdom of God. You were designed to do the will of the Father and it is His will that you are in that rightful place. Leading, guiding and protecting your families and furthering His kingdom on this earth!