Accidental promise to God

It happens that we make mistakes, we are humans after all.
Pray and ask God for forgiveness, he is faithful to forgive.

1 John 1:9 says: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."

Trust in God's word, and don't live feeling guilty.

Have a blessed day.

LazyBeanz said:

Hello, everyone. My delima is that I’m afraid my that I made an accidental promise to God. I said I would to something but I never meant it as a promise to him. Did I make an actual promise? Am I supposed to keep my accidental promise? I really didn’t mean it as a promise. Now I’m afraid if I don’t do it then I will be in sin, does God even hold me accountable even though I never meant to? Can someone help?

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During the last supper, the 11 disciples (other than Judas) had basically told Jesus they'd be with him to death if need be. A few hours later, they were running away in the dark leaving him alone. God knows our weaknesses, intents, and what is going on inside of us. He also knows our ability (or inability) to follow through on things. He knows when we are saying something stupid even before we realize that it is. He knows when we are saying something out of ignorance before we know better. The main thing is to learn from it rather than be held in bondage and guilt by it.

As a general observation (which may or may not be relevant here), I've observed that Christians sometimes try to make deals with God when praying about things. God, if you will do such and such, I promise that I will do such and such. I've also observed that Christians sometimes make promises to God out of a sense of guilt or obligation or misguided enthusiasm rather than simply following God's guidance and leading. I think that these are unhealthy versions of things. It is one thing to have a clear sense of God's call and guidance and purposing in our hearts to do something. It is another to try to negotiate with God or do things to try to prove something.

The real issue I see here is growing spiritually and walking consistently with God so that we start to walk in love and confidence and trust toward God and not in fear that God is looking to smite us for every sin. Often, we think of the gospel as having two parts. 1 God forgives us, and 2. We then try as hard as we can to not sin and do the right things to avoid God getting mad with us. In reality, the gospel has these two parts. 1. God forgives us (and adopts us as children and puts us in a right relationship with Him) and 2. He makes a new creation in Christ with the purpose that we will grow spiritually and that spiritual behavior will naturally start to flow out from our lives as we mature. As we grow spiritually, walk more with God, and get to know Him better and better, we start to see God more as a loving Father who is helping us grow and mature rather than as a strict Master and Judge looking to punish us for every mistake and failing.

God isn't an attorney. I don't think you have to verbalize or notarize a vow for it to be binding.

LazyBeanz said:

Hello, everyone. My delima is that I’m afraid my that I made an accidental promise to God. I said I would to something but I never meant it as a promise to him. Did I make an actual promise? Am I supposed to keep my accidental promise? I really didn’t mean it as a promise. Now I’m afraid if I don’t do it then I will be in sin, does God even hold me accountable even though I never meant to? Can someone help?

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It is best to keep our promises. However there are times when we make one that we just can not keep, often under emotional pressure. Jesus actually said that the source of the pressure to make promises comes from Satan, not from him. In a sense Satan is trying hard to get us afraid of God, to make us feel guilty for not keeping our promises. The fact is God loves us, and understands our weaknesses, He would forgive you for making a promise you can not keep. If the promise makes you feel pressured, just ask God to forgive you, and I believe He will.

LazyBeanz said:

I’m sorry that I may be posting this like 10 days late. But I have another question, what happens if you made oath with God but when you said it you meant another thing. Would he know what your talking about? Or does he expect you to keep what you said?

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Do not worry so much
God loves you, try to do what is right
Help others, pray more, avoid sin

Do not worry about oaths until you are more spiritually mature

LazyBeanz said:

I’m sorry that I may be posting this like 10 days late. But I have another question, what happens if you made oath with God but when you said it you meant another thing. Would he know what your talking about? Or does he expect you to keep what you said?

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God is our loving father, He wants what is best for us, Jesus is also our King (being a descendant of King David and also as God He is the King of all Creation) in the Old Testament we see a lot of kings leading armies in battle, this got me thinking of modern Generals, we are in spiritual combat against the forces of darkness, does the General expect a soldier to do whatever the soldiers says even if it is silly or wrong? No, there is a war going on, the General wants the soldier to follow orders and act responsibly
Trust God, try your best to follow Him, and repent when you mess up