One Key to Never Forsaking God

Nehemiah 10:29

They clave to their brethren, their nobles, and entered into a curse, and into an oath, to walk in God's law, which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the LORD our Lord, and his judgments and his statutes;

Nehemiah had a great heart for his people to never forsake God. Nehemiah saw the ruins that forsaking God brought upon his people, and now that he had rebuilt those ruins into a great wall to protect them from the outside enemy, his desire was that they would never forsake the LORD their God.

This great desire ought to be the desire of every believer. It ought to be the desire of your heart to stay close to God your entire life and to always stay in His favor. However, nobody has ever stayed close to God by accident. Those who have forsaken God likely never started with the purpose to forsake Him. Rather, they likely started out saying that they wanted to serve God their entire lives, but something happened that kept them from that desire and caused them to forsake God. I believe there is one word that is needed in every believer’s life if we are not going to forsake God, and that one word is commitment. If you are unwilling to commit your all to God, you will never live your whole life serving Him. Let me share several areas where these people committed themselves to God.

First, they committed their lives to God. You will notice in the verse above that these people committed themselves to walk in God's law. In other words, they committed to putting God first in their lives. You will never successfully serve God your entire life if you're unwilling to commit to put God first in your life. You must put God first before your job, before your hobbies, before your desires, before entertainment, and before the desire to make money. It all starts with you committing your life to serve God.

Second, they committed to keeping the LORD's Day sacred. I have never seen one person serve God their entire life who has not committed to being in church for all the services of the church. If you are unwilling to be faithful to all your church services, then you will be unwilling to commit your life to God. To be unwilling to go to the church services is to say that there is something more important to you than God, and you will never stay committed to God your entire life if there is something in your life that you consider to be more important than God.

Third, they committed their money to the LORD. Whoever owns your money owns your heart. If you give your money to God and are willing to commit to tithing according to God’s commandment, you will find that committing your money to God won't be that difficult. Nobody has ever committed their money to God who has not tithed. Tithing shows your heart and trust, and if you are unwilling to trust God to reward you for tithing, you will never be willing to commit your heart to God.

Fourth, they committed their families to God. Many have stopped serving God because of family. Are you willing to give your children to the LORD to use in His service? You must commit your whole family to serve God together if you are to be successful in not forsaking God. When serving God is a family affair, it will be easy to keep God as the central focus of everything that you do in life.