Getting a Heart of Wisdom

Psalms 90:1-2 ESV

 

“Lord, you have been our dwelling place

    in all generations.

Before the mountains were brought forth,

    or ever you had formed the earth and the world,

    from everlasting to everlasting you are God.”

 

To be “in Christ” means that we dwell in him and he dwells in us. But this doesn’t happen upon a mere profession of faith in Jesus Christ. The Scriptures teach us that to love God is to obey him. For God dwells in those of us who live according to his commandments (New Covenant). For if we do not walk in obedience to his commandments, but we profess to know him, we are liars. But if we keep his commandments, we will abide in him and in his love. But if we don’t, we are not born of God. We are of the devil.

 

So, we can’t just mouth a confession of Christ as our Savior and Lord and claim that we believe in him. True faith in Jesus Christ is evidenced by what we do in love response to our Lord who gave his life up for us on that cross in order that we might die with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness. True faith in Jesus Christ involves us dying with him to sin and being raised with him to walk (in conduct, in practice) in newness of life in him, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

 

For Jesus said that if anyone would come after him, he must deny self and take up his cross daily (daily die to sin and to self) and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to our old lives of living in sin and for self, we will lose them for eternity. But if we die with Christ to sin that we might live to him and to his righteousness, then we have the hope of eternal life with God. For Jesus also said that not everyone who says to him, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven but the one DOING the will of God the Father.

 

So we need to take this to heart. We need to be those who believe in Jesus Christ with God-given faith which dies with Christ to sin and lives with Christ in walks of obedience to his commands, for this is the essence of the gospel message. We must no longer be those who live according to our sinful flesh, but we must be those who are walking according to (in agreement with) the Spirit of God in holiness and in righteousness. Sin must no longer have mastery over our lives but Christ must be our Lord and Master.

 

[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Jn 8:31-32,51; Jn 10:27-30; Jn 14:15-24; Jn 15:10; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 15:2; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Php 2:12-13; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-11; Tit 2:11-14; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 5:9; Heb 10:26-31; Jas 1:21-25; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,15-17,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10,24; 1 Jn 5:2-3; 2 Jn 1:6]

 

Psalms 90:10-11 ESV

(also read verses 3-9)

 

“The years of our life are seventy,

    or even by reason of strength eighty;

yet their span is but toil and trouble;

    they are soon gone, and we fly away.

Who considers the power of your anger,

    and your wrath according to the fear of you?”

 

We must never take God or his grace to us for granted. We must never presume upon God his continued grace and forgiveness if we are not willing to submit to him as Lord, and if we are not willing to walk (in practice) according to his commands and no longer according to our sinful flesh. And we must never take our lifespan for granted, either, thinking that we always have tomorrow. God may not give us tomorrow. He could take our breath of life away from us at any moment. So are we ready to meet him?

 

Many people are professing faith in Jesus Christ but their lives are still given over to the flesh and not to walks of obedience to the Lord Jesus. And they are just assuming that they are going to heaven when they die. But that is a false presumption based upon all the Scriptures referenced in the section above. For we are not saved from our sins and heaven is not our eternal destiny if we are still living in deliberate and habitual sin and not according to the will of God. And God knows who is sinning against him in secret.

 

Psalms 90:12-17 ESV

 

“So teach us to number our days

    that we may get a heart of wisdom.

Return, O Lord! How long?

    Have pity on your servants!

Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,

    that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.

Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,

    and for as many years as we have seen evil.

Let your work be shown to your servants,

    and your glorious power to their children.

Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,

    and establish the work of our hands upon us;

    yes, establish the work of our hands!”

 

So, we need the Lord to teach us to number our days. We need to read the Scriptures in their context so that we know what God expects of us if we are to be his true followers. For, contrary to popular opinion, works are required of us, it is just that they are the works that God prepared in advance that we should walk in them in his power and strength. They are not the works of our own human flesh. And one day we are all going to be judged by our works, and if we continued in deliberate sin and not in obedience to our Lord, then we do not have the promise of eternal life with God.

 

But following Jesus Christ with our lives is not easy. It is only in the sense that Jesus carries our burdens if we give them over to him and if we surrender our lives to him. But the life of a true follower of Jesus Christ is a life of suffering. We are to share in the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings, becoming like him in his death. We are to be crucified with Christ in death to sin and raised with him to walk in newness of life of him in holiness, righteousness, faithfulness, honesty, and moral purity. For this reason Jesus gave his life up for us on that cross.

 

[Eph 2:8-10; 1 Co 15:58; 2 Co 9:8; Gal 5:6; Php 2:12-13; Col 1:9-14; 2 Thess 1:11-12; 2 Tim. 2:21; Tit 2:11-14; Jn 15:1-11; Tit 3:8; Jas 2:17; Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; 1 Co 6:9-10; 2 Co 5:10; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-11; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 10:23-31; 1 Pet 1:17-21; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]

 

Dwelling In Beulah Land

 

By Miles C Austin (1911)

 

Far away the noise of strife upon my ear is falling;

Then I know the sins of earth beset on every hand;

Doubt and fear and things of earth in vain to me are calling;

None of these shall move me from Beulah Land.

 

Far below the storm of doubt upon the world is beating,

Sons of men in battle long the enemy withstand;

Safe am I within the castle of God’s word retreating,

Nothing there can reach me, ’tis Beulah Land.

 

Let the stormy breezes blow, their cry cannot alarm me;

I am safely sheltered here, protected by God's hand;

Here the sun is always shining, nothing there can harm me;

I am safe forever in Beulah Land.

 

Viewing here the works of God, I sink in contemplation;

Hearing now His blessed voice, I see the way He planned;

Dwelling in the Spirit, here I learn of full salvation,

Gladly I will tarry in Beulah Land.

 

I'm living on the mountain, underneath a cloudless sky,

I'm drinking at the fountain that never shall run dry;

Oh, yes! I'm feasting on the manna from a bountiful supply,

For I am dwelling in Beulah Land.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mob1aWZfApo

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