Inner Vows

One of the quickest ways to get to the Isle of Man is to fly, but it’s a small island and the flights there tend to be on 10 or 15 seat light aircraft. When we came back from a visit there in 2008, we came back in a tiny pencil of an aeroplane, where you had to bend double to get to your seat and then slot yourself in. Although it was a short flight, we had to circle and wait for the flight before us going into Blackpool airport. It was like being on a roller coaster and I was so, so, ill. I had to lie down for 4 hours afterwards, and it took a week to recover. “I’ll never fly on another light aircraft as long as I live” was what I was tempted to think to myself. This is an example of an inner vow, and an unpleasant experience is typically at the root of it.

The trouble with inner vows is that they can work against God’s will for us in our lives. The above example may have no real significance if I never need to go the Isle of Man again, but could be quite disruptive if I do. In reality, though, there would be unforgiveness in there (of the pilots and the airport authorities) and as such would still need to be dealt with. Similarly, there would also be a judgement and an ungodly belief about small aeroplanes.

We have the tendency to forget just how much authority we have over our own lives, and how much power what we say and think has over ourselves. Inner vows are an example of one way our own authority can work against us.