Do you remember saying the pledge to the American Flag in school?  How about the pledge to the Bible in church?  Remember it?  Well, I actually didn’t learn the Bible Pledge until I was an adult.  But I love it.  This week I want to talk about our decisions to where we put our allegiance.  There are many good causes we support and are loyal to and nothing wrong with many of them.  The question is, “where do you place your strongest allegiance; to the world, or to God?  We are going to focus on the Pledge to the Bible, so let’s begin with the actual pledge to the Bible:

“I pledge allegiance to the Bible, God’s Holy Word, a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.  It’s Words will I hide in my heart that I might not sin against God”. 

According to the dictionary pledge means “to promise, to vow, or agree with”.  Allegiance means “loyalty owed by a citizen to a government, to a person or a cause”.    So when we say we pledge allegiance to the Bible, we are promising to agree with it.  We are agreeing to be faithful to walk in obedience to it.

We all know what a lamp is; it’s a vessel that produces light.  Light always overcomes darkness.  The Bible gives us light or insight and understanding to how we should walk according to the precepts in it; where we are and where we are going.  The more revelation of God’s Word we have the more desire we have to please Him.

When we pledge to hide the Word in our heart, we are saying that we will keep it close to our heart, that we might not sin against God.  1 John 5:17 tells us that “all unrighteousness is sin”.  That includes any wrong thought, motive, word or action.  However, we don’t have to be afraid to make an allegiance to God because we fear we will fail.  Most likely we will from time to time.  That does not excuse us from making the commitment to follow His Word.  God is faithful to help us to live for Him.  If we do slip up, God gave us the solution in 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”.    When we confess our sin, not only does He forgive us of sin, but He takes away the desire to sin and cleans away the stain sin leaves behind.  Thank you Jesus.

Our pledge to the Bible is really our agreeing with God that His Word is True and Holy, as He is Holy.  We are saying that we will put our trust in Him to change us so we can walk uprightly before Him.  We are promising to stay close to Him by seeking protection in His Word by Bible study and prayer.  According to Philippians 1:6 we can be confident that He who has begun a good work in us will complete and finish it.

Let us begin each day with a new commitment to agree with God, to be loyal to Him in every area of our lives.  Let us be diligent to listen for His voice and do His will so that when we stand before Him, we will hear Him say, “Thou good and faithful servant”.