How can a young man
keep his way pure?
By guarding it according to your word.
With my whole heart I
seek you;
let me not wander from your commandments!
I have stored up your
word in my heart,
that I might not sin against you.
Blessed are you, O
Lord;
teach me your statutes!
Psalm 119:9-12 ESV
How can any of us keep our way pure? We have to guard (safeguard,
protect) our walks, our paths according to (in agreement with) the Word of God.
So, how does that work in all practicality? For, it seems that far too many
Christians (or professing Christians) are failing miserably at this.
Well, the first thing we need to do is to surrender our
hearts and our lives over to Jesus Christ and to his Lordship over our lives.
This is not lip service only, though. It is not wishful thinking. It is a gut wrenching
humbling and sorrowful bowing of the knee to Almighty God, surrendering all to
God, and subjecting ourselves to his complete control and authority over our
lives.
Involved in this is the death to our old way of living for
sin and self, a renewal of heart and mind of the Spirit of God, and a turnabout
of mindset and of conduct that results in a walk of obedience to the Lord one
day and one step at a time.
For, every day we have to resist Satan, flee temptation, say
“No!” to ungodliness and fleshly lusts, and live self-controlled, upright and
godly lives in the power of God living within us.
We have to seek God with our whole hearts, not just when it
is convenient for us, or when it fits into our time schedule, or when it fits
with our lifestyle. This is not something we do 5 minutes a day, in other
words. We have to desire him and his Word and his will and his ways in our
lives, not just emotionally, but in reality in our daily walks. For, if it is
real, it will be evident. And, it has to be consistent, and habitual, and not
just casual.
But, we aren’t seeking HIM with our whole hearts if we are
running after the gods of this world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the
eyes, and the pride of life. If we are chasing after these, then we aren’t
seeking God with our whole hearts. What we are seeking with our whole hearts,
though, will also be evidenced in our lives by our regular conduct, our
attitudes, our beliefs, and our character. So, if what we are seeking are the
gods of this world, then what we will be producing will follow suit.
Also, we need to store up the Word of God in our hearts.
And, this doesn’t mean to merely memorize scripture, either, for there we are
just storing it up in our heads. Remember that Satan knows the scriptures, too,
and many people have head knowledge of what God’s Word teaches, but where they
fail is in applying their head knowledge to their hearts and to their lives.
So, storing up God’s Words in our hearts means we are not
only taking in the Word of God each day (in context), and not only are we putting
it into practice, but we are sharing it with others, too. And, it also means we
are not being counterproductive by also storing up the mindset and attitudes of
this world in our hearts via the media or wrong associations with people.
You rebuke the insolent,
accursed ones,
who wander from your commandments.
Take away from me
scorn and contempt,
for I have kept your testimonies.
Even though princes
sit plotting against me,
your servant will meditate on your
statutes.
Your testimonies are
my delight;
they are my counselors.
Psalm 119:21-24 ESV
Who are the insolent? They are those who are insultingly
contemptuous in speech and/or in conduct. And, to be insulting is to behave
with pride or arrogance. And, to be contemptuous is manifesting or expressing
deep hatred for someone. It is to treat them with scorn, which means to treat
them with open dislike, disrespect and disdain, to treat them as inferior.
When people treat God this way, they ignore his commands, or
they find ways around them, or they act like they don’t know what to do, or as
though they are some special case. And, so they have excuse after excuse after
excuse for why they keep recycling the same sinful behaviors over and over
again, and for why they are not living in victory over sin.
And, so they willfully and consistently, as a matter of
habit, live in sin, which is a slap in the face to God, i.e. it is insulting to
God and to his grace. For Jesus Christ died on that cross to deliver us out of
our slavery to sin, not so that we could continue in willful sin against him
without guilt and without punishment (Heb. 10:29; Rom. 2:4; Isaiah 1; Rom.
6:1-23; Eph. 4:17-24).
And, when the insolent treat others this way, they treat
them as though their lives don’t matter, as though they are less than them or as
though they hate and despise them, or as though they are filled with bitterness
and resentment against them. For, it is not loving to willfully misuse, abuse, cheat
on, lie to, or to steal from others on a consistent and habitual basis, in
particular, with no signs of true repentance or of genuine change.
Yet, there are many people who do this, and sadly enough,
many of them profess to be followers of Christ. And, yet they plot evil against
those they profess to love, they are consistently unfaithful, they habitually
lie to them, they treat them like dirt under their feet for them to walk on,
and when confronted with their sin, they make excuses for why they are not
free.
And, the thing of it is, even though God does rebuke them in
many different ways, they still wander, and they still continue on in their sin
and in their pride and arrogance, ruling their own lives, and refusing to
submit themselves to the rule of our Lord Jesus. So, when they want to sin,
they just put up their hand against God and against those they sin against, and
they say, in essence, “Forget you, I am going to do what I want.”
The Despised and
Rejected
So, those who are the object of the insolents’ scorn and
derision must deal with the pain and suffering that they must endure at the
hands of those who treat God and them with disdain. And, one way may be to pray
for God to take it all away, and he may, but he may not. For, he promised us
that if we follow him with our lives that we are going to be treated just like
Jesus was treated. We will be hated and persecuted for righteousness’ sake if
we are truly those who walk in obedience to the Lord’s Word and we love Jesus.
So, whether or not God removes the scorn and contempt from
us, we need to remain faithful to our Lord in following him in his ways and in
keeping his commandments. Even though the insolent may plot evil against us,
i.e. even though they premeditatedly plot a sinful course which is directed
against us, and even if they never repent of their sin, and they never change
course, we have to remain faithful to our Lord in all ways.
And, we must forgive those who do evil against us. But,
forgiveness is not carte blanche for them to continue in sin. When Jesus
forgives, he says, “Go and sin no more.” And, he gives us warning after
warning, and instruction after instruction in scripture regarding how we need
to live, and what we must put off, and what we must put on, and he tells us
plainly that if we remain on a sinful course, that heaven is not guaranteed us.
So, forgiving our enemies or those who plot evil against us,
and who carry out the evil that they plotted, does not mean we then have
blinders on when the sin continues. And, it doesn’t mean that we don’t speak
the truth in love or that we don’t rebuke or confront wrong behavior. For, we
are to rescue people from the flames, not coddle them in their sin so they go
to hell.
But, we need to let them know that Jesus made the way for
them to be free, and if they would just surrender their lives to him and follow
him in his ways, and if they would say “NO!” to sin and “YES!” to Christ and
his righteousness, then they would truly be free!
The Spirit Calling
An Original Work /
November 12, 2019
Hear the Spirit calling.
He’ll keep you from falling.
Tenderly He’s calling,
“Come and follow Him.”
Walk with Jesus daily.
Don’t give in to lazy.
Folks may call you crazy.
Fellowship with Him.
Follow where He leads you.
Eat what Jesus feeds you.
His love will renew you
If you follow Him.
Do what Jesus tells you.
Don’t let your faith fail you.
His love will avail you
If you walk with Him.
Jesus, Lord and Savior,
Reigneth now forever.
He gave us His favor
So we’d live with Him.
Turning now from our sin,
Holy Spirit live-in.
Holiness we walk in,
Purified by Him.
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