When we as Christians want to talk about commitment, where do we have begin? Not with our commitment to God but with God’s commitment to us. Consider the commitment of Jesus Christ to God the Father. In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus prayed, "Not my will, but yours be done." Then Jesus went to the cross to make full payment for the sins of the world. Consider the commitment Jesus Christ made also to us. He came into this world not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Consider the commitment Jesus made to his disciples. "You did not chose me," he told them "I chose you." Consider the commitment Jesus has also made to us. We also are among those whom he has chosen. Jesus has poured out upon us God the Holy Spirit who has been sent to us from God the Father. In this way he has called us into our Christian faith, clothed us with his righteousness and perfection, and equipped us to carry out the work he has prepared for us to do.

Focus your attention on the commitment of your God and then hear God’s invitation to commit your way 100% to him. To hear his word and to believe it. To hear his promises and to trust them. To hear his direction and to walk in his ways. Commit your way to the Lord and your God promises that he will cause your righteousness to shine in this world like the dawn. You will be a bright light in a world of darkness and you will shine like the noonday sun making those choices which both God and others recognize as right and just.

Focus your attention on the commitment of your God and then commit yourself to your spouse. Marriage is under much attack in our day. People believe that they can find sexual happiness and companionship outside of marriage. Some people chose to live together because they think that marriage will actually harm their relationship and lead to divorce! How the devil lies! Recently a woman wrote in to a newspaper columnist. For nine years she had lived with a man - sometimes as a lover, sometimes as a friend. Then she married him. She now regretted that quick decision. She was no longer happy with her husband. She now found herself plagued by thoughts about other men. Her husband was an alcoholic. Yet she said she still loved him but now had thoughts of leaving him. The columnist’s advice? Tell the husband to stop drinking immediately or else you will leave him. Do you realize that statistics tell us that those who live together before marriage have a higher divorce rate than those who follow God’s directives of moral purity before marriage and commitment to ones spouse within marriage? Sin always hurts and righteousness shines with God’s blessings. But don’t Christians have troubles in their marriages too? Yes, they do - sometimes big troubles. So what glues Christian marriages together? Commitment to the Lord who joined husband and wife together leads to commitment to ones spouse in good times and in bad. Christian commitment to the Lord causes them to bear with each other, forgive each other, attack problems rather than people, and live together for better or for worse until death do them part.

Focus your attention on the commitment of your God and then commit yourself to your family. One of the greatest blessings God gives to us in life is family. A solid Christian family brings tremendous blessing to parents and children alike. To parents God has entrusted the spiritual and physical welfare of their children. Parents will do everything they can to express their love for God in their own homes. They will gladly go to church and lead their children to see the blessing of God’s word and worship. They will be committed to the church school and Sunday school so that their children will learn the wonderful truths of God’s love for them in Jesus. They will practice what they preach. They will shine like the sun in the living of a godly life and their children will experience how blessed are those people who trust in the Lord. They will discipline their children in love. They will sacrifice for their children their time and their talents. They will put the needs of their children before their own as they seek to be a blessing to their children for time and for eternity. And where will parents find the strength and motivation to continue such sacrificial living for the family? They will find it in their commitment to the Lord who has given to them such a blessing in life.

Focus your attention on the commitment of your God and then commit yourself to every other aspect of life in this world - your job, your neighbor, your country. The Christian life is finally to be expressed in everything that you think, say, and do as you strive to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your strength and with all your mind. And what are you to do when you find that your commitment is lacking? Every day confess your sins. Every day focus on God’s love for you in your Savior. Every day ask God to give you the presence and power of the Holy Spirit to create within you a clean heart and a spirit committed to him.

Florence Chadwick was the first woman to swim the English Channel in both directions. On the Fourth of July in 1952 she attempted to swim from Catalina Island to the California coast. The challenge wasn’t so much the distance as the bone-chilling waters of the Pacific. To complicate matters, a dense fog lay over the entire area, making it impossible for her to see land. After about fifteen hours and within a half mile of her goal, Chadwick gave up. Later she told a reporter: "Look, I’m not excusing myself. But if I could have seen land, I might have made it." Not long afterward she attempted the feat again. This time she made it. No, the coastline was still obscured by a misty veil of fog, but this time she kept reminding herself that the land was there. Bravely she swam on, achieved her goal, and even broke the men’s record by two hours.

Christians, your commitment to the Lord can do great things. Many obstacles will face you in life. Sometimes the bad in life seems to outweigh the good and we are tempted to quit, to give up, to turn away from our commitment to trust in the Lord and to walk in his ways. That’s the time for us to remember God’s commitment to us again. You may not have seen the heavenly glory which awaits you one day, but it is there. You may not see how God can take your life and let it shine in this world as a blessing to many others, within your family and without. But God knows how he will bless you and God knows how he will bless others through you. So don’t quit. Don’t give up. Focus your attention again and again on the commitment which God has made to you and then recommit your way to the Lord. Renew your trust in God and his promises. And bravely "swim" on until your reach your final goal of eternal life in heaven. There for all eternity God will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.