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! With my lips I declare all the rules of Your mouth. In the way of Your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches. I will meditate on Your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in Your statutes. I will not forget your word. (Verses 9-16)
Each man is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death. James 1
Italics, mine
For Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, the directive was clear. You can have all you want from every tree in the garden...except one. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This from a God Who wanted to spare them being enticed by their own desires. The duo saw it daily...the forbidden tree. Never thought to eat from it until the day the lovely serpent hissed..."Come over here..." And they looked. And listened to the lisping lies that said God was not good. Wanted to hide something from them. Go on...taste it! You will not die.
The rest is history. From way, way back. Just one bite. Just one taste of what we've been told we can't have. It can't hurt to try it just this once. And some of us have stored up God's word and precepts in our hearts. Like Adam and Eve, have walked with Him for a while and still reach for a taste of the forbidden. Like there's something good that God is keeping from us in the evil He withholds.
I remember when I was first learning to drive. One of the first things my father told me was to keep my eyes on the road ahead. Don't look to the right or the left because if I did I might veer in the direction my eyes wandered toward. I held to that rigorously because I didn't want to die in a wreck! Having my eyes look in the correct direction saves my spiritual life, too. Taking them off was a train wreck! God expects us to be intentional about looking at Him. He is intentional about watching over us! We make the decision to keep our eyes on the prize. Determination to save us was the thing that took Jesus to the cross. He kept His eyes on the joy set before Him. Our salvation. It drove Him. Kept Him up nights. Gave Him victory over Satan.
Good question. "How do we keep our lives pure?" First, Guard it! Stand watch over what goes in and out! Say "No!" to anything that might corrupt it. Chase down the enemy who would tear down its walls. Soldier your life! Know the orders. The commandments that barricade us against principalities and powers. Know the Commander! Trust the wisdom of His words. Next, Give your whole heart to the pursuit. Not half-way living your spiritual life. Always wondering if there's not something better out there. I heard a young Christian woman say not long ago, "Yes, I'm a Christian, but I dabble in other stuff, too. You know, to cover all my options." There are no other options! Her life is compromised because of this. And it shows. The wandering eye of a child of God is just as lethal as the wandering eye of an adulterer. We will eventually be led away. Thirdly, Know what God says. Adam and Eve were fooled into believing a lie. "God didn't say you would die." Satan twisted what he knew was the truth. Went on to accuse God of wanting to keep something good from the man and his wife. If we haven't learned in our hearts the truth of God's Word, we'll be tricked.
We all need parameters. God made us that way. The wonderful thing about the ones that He establishes for us are that they are for our good and for His glory. He didn't just make up a bunch of stuff to test us to see if we'd follow. We did that later! Created religion. But that's not His idea. Just like fish are made to live in water, birds were created to fly and earthworms live to dig in the earth, we are created to have fellowship with God. That's where we thrive, not just survive! When knowing Him becomes the richest experience of our lives, we are happiest when we do what He wants. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome (1 John 5). I don't want to stomp off from God every time I'm required to choose Him instead of what my own flesh wants, harrumphing and moaning about how hard it is to walk the narrow way. Grumbling about all I'm missing as a Christian in the carnival this world is. That is what religion stirs up in us. Relationship with the Father Who loves us beyond anything we can imagine...saw us as His future joy while His Son hung bleeding on a cross...is supposed to make us realize we do what God wants out of sheer devotion and unwavering reciprocal love.
Oh, God, make my heart beat to say, "What is it you require of me today so I can show You that I love you more than anything!"
Each man is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death. James 1
Italics, mine
For Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, the directive was clear. You can have all you want from every tree in the garden...except one. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This from a God Who wanted to spare them being enticed by their own desires. The duo saw it daily...the forbidden tree. Never thought to eat from it until the day the lovely serpent hissed..."Come over here..." And they looked. And listened to the lisping lies that said God was not good. Wanted to hide something from them. Go on...taste it! You will not die.
The rest is history. From way, way back. Just one bite. Just one taste of what we've been told we can't have. It can't hurt to try it just this once. And some of us have stored up God's word and precepts in our hearts. Like Adam and Eve, have walked with Him for a while and still reach for a taste of the forbidden. Like there's something good that God is keeping from us in the evil He withholds.
I remember when I was first learning to drive. One of the first things my father told me was to keep my eyes on the road ahead. Don't look to the right or the left because if I did I might veer in the direction my eyes wandered toward. I held to that rigorously because I didn't want to die in a wreck! Having my eyes look in the correct direction saves my spiritual life, too. Taking them off was a train wreck! God expects us to be intentional about looking at Him. He is intentional about watching over us! We make the decision to keep our eyes on the prize. Determination to save us was the thing that took Jesus to the cross. He kept His eyes on the joy set before Him. Our salvation. It drove Him. Kept Him up nights. Gave Him victory over Satan.
Good question. "How do we keep our lives pure?" First, Guard it! Stand watch over what goes in and out! Say "No!" to anything that might corrupt it. Chase down the enemy who would tear down its walls. Soldier your life! Know the orders. The commandments that barricade us against principalities and powers. Know the Commander! Trust the wisdom of His words. Next, Give your whole heart to the pursuit. Not half-way living your spiritual life. Always wondering if there's not something better out there. I heard a young Christian woman say not long ago, "Yes, I'm a Christian, but I dabble in other stuff, too. You know, to cover all my options." There are no other options! Her life is compromised because of this. And it shows. The wandering eye of a child of God is just as lethal as the wandering eye of an adulterer. We will eventually be led away. Thirdly, Know what God says. Adam and Eve were fooled into believing a lie. "God didn't say you would die." Satan twisted what he knew was the truth. Went on to accuse God of wanting to keep something good from the man and his wife. If we haven't learned in our hearts the truth of God's Word, we'll be tricked.
We all need parameters. God made us that way. The wonderful thing about the ones that He establishes for us are that they are for our good and for His glory. He didn't just make up a bunch of stuff to test us to see if we'd follow. We did that later! Created religion. But that's not His idea. Just like fish are made to live in water, birds were created to fly and earthworms live to dig in the earth, we are created to have fellowship with God. That's where we thrive, not just survive! When knowing Him becomes the richest experience of our lives, we are happiest when we do what He wants. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome (1 John 5). I don't want to stomp off from God every time I'm required to choose Him instead of what my own flesh wants, harrumphing and moaning about how hard it is to walk the narrow way. Grumbling about all I'm missing as a Christian in the carnival this world is. That is what religion stirs up in us. Relationship with the Father Who loves us beyond anything we can imagine...saw us as His future joy while His Son hung bleeding on a cross...is supposed to make us realize we do what God wants out of sheer devotion and unwavering reciprocal love.
Oh, God, make my heart beat to say, "What is it you require of me today so I can show You that I love you more than anything!"
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