Thursday,
March 4, 2021
The instructions of the Lord are perfect, reviving
the soul.
The decrees of the Lord are trustworthy, making
wise the simple.
The commands of the Lord are clear, giving
insight for living.
Reverence for the Lord is pure, lasting forever.
The laws of the Lord are true; each one is fair. They are more desirable than gold, even
the finest gold. They are sweeter than
honey, even honey dripping from the comb. They are a warning to your servant, a
great reward for those who obey them.
How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart? Cleanse me from these hidden faults. Keep your servant from deliberate sins! Don’t let them control me. Then I will be free of guilt and innocent of
great sin.
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my
heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Psalm 19:7-14
Like
layers of blessing, the instructions, decrees, commandments, commands, and law
of the Lord, bring reviving of the soul, wisdom, joy, and insight in daily
living that is lasting, sweet, and a great reward for accepting them in word
and deed, in heart and hand.
God’s
Word is the key to a life of blessing. By
contrast, disregarding God’s Word is a foolproof method for destroying a
life. Solomon, son of King David, author
of this Psalm, spent a lifetime checking out this formula. He tried virtually everything that promised
happiness, fulfillment, and joy, apart from what God had
decreed in His Word, and found every bit of it “vanity” or emptiness.
Everything is wearisome beyond description. No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content. Ecclesiastes 1:8
Oddly,
and sadly, despite a mountain of experience to the contrary, the world’s
culture manages to convince itself that mankind knows better than God. The result is chasing the wind and reaping
the whirlwind. In typical human
arrogance we imagine there is some new way that will be better than obeying God’s
ways.
It
would be impossible in the space of this five-minute devotional to recount even
a sampling of our incredible miscalculations in trying to make God and His Word
obsolete, obscure, and unprofitable, but here are two front-burner examples:
God’s
Word, decrees, laws, and just plain common, mathematical, logical, way is
heterosexuality, within the relationship of marital fidelity. When a Biblical approach to life[1],
family, and sexuality are upheld, life is more on the joyful side than
painful. Read that: less drama, more fulfillment.
In
contrast, the world’s way is anything goes, with sexual
promiscuity and libido (sexual desire)
as the only judge of what is good or healthy.
To cut to the chase in the “results” department…the end of such is
pretty much just plain heartbreak.
Politics
Of
late, but not new, humans experiment with how to socially engineer community to
create the next great world order. In
America that experiment occurs every 2 to 4 years; we call it democratic
elections. We choose who will govern
us. Truth be told we vacillate,
wildly-so, between extremes. In 2016 we
elected Donald Trump; in 2020 it was Joe Biden.
Extremes between the left and right, both with enough personal baggage
and agenda to keep the pundits happy and employed until the next go-round.
Cutting
to the blunt and sane decree, command of God, our political flags ought to be
run up this pole:
No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8
For You Today
This culture’s ways, or God’s ways…you just can’t have
both.
[1] Title Image: Courtesy of Pixabay.com Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
[1] A “Biblical approach” is not the media and atheistic caricatured version; it is marriage and family life which mutually undergirds the principles of love, with accountability to God.
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