I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 3rd of July, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go to the Gospel of Matthew 5:37, the Lord Jesus says:

“But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.” 

We must not make promises that we cannot keep. We must be honest, come clean, and say, “We cannot do it” rather than try to pacify people. If you have made a mistake, just go and ask the person to forgive you. I am thinking of that relationship, that young couple who are contemplating marriage, and maybe she has realised at the last minute that this is not the man for her. You need to let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and your ‘no’ be ‘no’ for your sake, for his sake, and most of all for the Lord’s sake. The Lord Jesus said, “Blessed are the peace-makers”, not “blessed are the peace-lovers” and sometimes to bring peace in your family you have got to make decisions. You have got to say to your children, “No, you are not going to do that, we are going to do this” and eventually your children will come and thank you for that. We have to become more decisive.

When I left Zambia, and I came down to South Africa, we had signed up to purchase a farm, and I had to go to the lawyers to sign the papers, but there was something in me that was not really at peace, and I had to cancel the farm sale, and I bought another farm. At the time, I was very, very embarrassed and the gentleman who was selling me the farm was extremely disappointed, but I had to say to him, “This is not the farm that we are going to buy because I want to grow seed maise on this farm and I don’t have isolation distance from other commercial crops of maise, and it just wouldn’t work.” 

I made the right decision. It was very difficult and as a result, we bought the farm, “Shalom” and God has blessed us on this farm with many, many good things, but I can tell you right now, if I had purchased the other farm, just to make the seller happy, we would have gone bankrupt. Today, let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and let your ‘no’ be ‘no’ and anything else, the Lord says, is evil. Don’t keep on doing things you know you shouldn’t do because you will not get the victory in that situation. Be decisive and then you will be at peace. 

Jesus bless you and goodbye.