Personal Covenant Making and Keeping

UV 4310/10000 Personal Covenant Making and Keeping I have made a covenant ( agreement) with my eyes; how then could I gaze ( lustfully) at a virgin? Job 31 v 1 This uni-verse introduces a new, innovative spiritual practice adopted by Job. No wonder God was pleased with him and the devil was displeased with him and sought to sift him with many trials and tribulations. We could take a page from Job’s life and make a covenant with our eyes, our mouths, our tongues, our appetite, our egos not to sin against God. We can make a covenant to consider all women other than our spouse to be our sisters or brothers as the case may be. We can make a covenant with our lips, our mouths, our vocal cords not to argue, not to complain, not to say vulgar things, not to abuse, not to criticize others, not to say anything hurting, negative or sarcastic. We can make a covenant with our brains or minds not to think a negative thought or yield to temptation. We can make a covenant with our legs not to go to a sinful place or a place of temptation but to flee it like Joseph. A covenant is a sacred, inviolable agreement in which God is our witness. These covenants we make with our own various faculties and organs will move us closer and closer to the standards of holiness or righteousness God call us to uphold in our lives. If we are able to keep our covenants with our mouths and discipline our speech, James goes so far to call us perfect. Of course, we need to confront the fact that we cannot keep any of these internal covenants without the grace of God, the help of the Holy Spirit who will remind us of the terms of our agreements. The question is whether if we constrain ourselves with so many personal agreements, whether we will have any freedom, whether our lives would be enjoyable. These agreements, in fact, are meant not to restrict us but to enlarge our territories like Jabez, to increase our influence, to protect and preserve our testimonies, to bless us. It will accelerate our spiritual and personal growth like never before. When our energies are regulated like the water of a dam, it becomes a powerful force, not a burden or a hindrance.