Have you ever cried out to God, “If you get me out of this mess I’ll turn my life over to You. I’ll go to church, I’ll give a tithe to You, I’ll serve You”? Those are foxhole vows.
The psalmist understood this. He had made that kind of a vow himself. Now he wanted to fulfill it. Psalm 66:13-14 says, “I will come to your temple with burnt offerings and fulfill my vows to you; vows my lips promised and my mouth spoke when I was in trouble.”
He had been in trouble. He had been in a foxhole. He had been under attack. And in the midst of those difficult circumstances he cried out to God and made some kind of a promise, a vow—“I am going to do this or that if you just get me out of this problem.”
Now he was coming to the temple with a burnt offering to fulfill his vows to God. A burnt offering is an act of consecrating yourself to God. He wanted to fulfill his vows, the vows he had uttered with his lips.
Stop for a moment and think. Have you made vows to God during a difficult experience in your life, when you were in trouble, but that you haven’t fulfilled? If you have, I’d suggest you follow the psalmist’s example. Go to God. Go to the people of God. In the presence of the people of God, who will give you encouragement and hold you accountable, fulfill your vow.
If God has been reminding you about the vow you made and you have put off fulfilling it, ask for forgiveness. This is how you allow God to bless your life: fulfill the vow you expressed in a time of difficulty.
