Be-Cast Episode 25: BE COMMITTED (Part 1)

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A NOTE FROM SARA:

Okay, a moment of honesty…how many of you in this moment would admit that you feel overcommitted? You are just tired, worn down, exhausted, frazzled and maybe even unhappy?

A few years ago, I would have been jumping up and down yelling ME!! ME!!  THAT’S ME!! And only by the grace of God have I been delivered from a portion of this “overcommitted craze!”

Don’t get me wrong, I still feel that way at times, but daily I feel that God is delivering me. Part of this journey has been the drive and purpose behind Be Still Be Free. When we are overcommitted, we are in no way Being Still. However, as the culture that we live in is picking up speed in the life of business and the habit of Doing, we have broken our commitment to God and to His true calling on our lives.

We are overcommitted in the things that really don’t matter (even though Satan would have us believe those are the things that do matter) and under committed in the things that really do matter.

This week are going to talk about what commitment is and what it looks like. This is the first week we have broken a Be word into 2 weeks.  There are so many great little nuggets of truth that we couldn’t fit it all in to a 30-minute recording. Monica, Amber and I just love to talk, so…it’s hard to keep it to just 30 minutes to begin with! But God gave us so much to talk about with commitment that we decided to do it a little different this week.

Here are some statistics we are talking about this week:

• A vast demographic study conducted by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago found that Christians, like adherents of other religions, have a divorce rate of about 42%. The rate among religiously unaffiliated Americans is 50%.

• According to Barna, attendance at weekend church services has declined among this group by seven percent since 1991 — falling from 66% to 59%.

• The proportion of born-again adults who read the Bible during the week (not including when they are at a church event) has decreased by 9% since 1991. The weekly average is now at 62%.

• Volunteering at church during the week for those identified as born-again Christians has dropped from 41% in 1991 to 29%today.

• Even with the increase in born-again Christians over the last 20 years, what has not increased is the participation in their faith, Barna said in his analysis of the study

• In his book Generation iY, Tim Elmore says that in 1999, 90% teens planned to go to college. In 2009, 30% of teens didn’t even graduate from high school.

• Back in 1870’s, there was one divorce for every 34 marriages. By 1900, one in five marriages ended in divorce. Today, one out of every two marriages ends in divorce.

• According to a recent Gallup poll, 73% of Americans under age 45, believe that life spent with the same partner is both unusual and unnecessary.

• 10 years ago, for every wife who left her family, 600 husbands did. Today for each man who leaves, two women do. (I just had to highlight this statistic as it shows us how we as women have shifted in our level of commitment as well.)

Secondly, here are the definitions of commitment we are talking about:

• an engagement or obligation that restricts freedom of action
• a promise to be loyal to someone or something

Commitment is what transforms the promise into reality. It is the words that speak boldly of your intentions. And the actions which speak louder than the words. It is making the time when there is none. Coming through time after time after time, year after year after year. Commitment is the stuff Character is made of; The power to change the face of things. It is the daily triumph of integrity over skepticism. When I say I love you, I mean that I’m committed to working to love you even when it’s hard. (Urban Dictionary)

• Commit: Hebrew root Galal which means “to roll; like as to roll away or heap; can also mean to trust.”
• English to Greek translation: “Be Committed: to be fully engaged in, to have promised to, pledged to be involved.”

PRACTICAL APPLICATION:

Next week we will wrap up our discussion with our practical application, however, I thought a little practice this week would be good in preparing us for next week’s content.

1. Take the time to make a list of the commitments you have in your life…all the things you are doing.  And then rank them in the order of importance.

2. Pray over these commitments asking Jesus to reveal if each one is a commitment from Him or one you have created for yourself.

READY MADE TWEETS (click to tweet):

When we are overcommitted, we are in no way Being Still.

Commitment is what transforms the promise into reality.

Commitment is the stuff Character is made of.

It’s no wonder churches are full of people but empty of servants.

It’s no wonder marriages are full of characters but empty of character.

We’re over-committed in things that don’t matter & under-committed in things that do.

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