THINK ABOUT HIS LOVE. THINK ABOUT HIS GOODNESS.
Psalms 1:1-3 Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.
I don’t know if your mother was like mine, but for some reason my mother used to like to use sayings to influence me. By the time I was a teenager her favorite one for me was “Birds of a feather, flock together”, then she would add, “Choose your friends wisely.” Well, it may not have come out of the Bible, but it was good advice as we see in verse one. God certainly did bless me with many good friends, and some are still very close to my wife and myself.
Usually when I think of the saying “Birds of feather,flock together”, I think in natural groupings of race, status, job position and even religion. But for each of these groupings there are still further breakdowns of groups. In a way I find it funny that many times people choose their husband or wife that will be opposite of them. They say opposites attract in marriage, but in most areas of our life we gravitate towards people more like us. Maybe God has us do this so we will be a more complete couple and have our children more well rounded. I am not sure about this, but I do know my mom was right about being careful the kind of friends we need to hang out with. The reason of course is we will usually find ourselves becoming just like them, whether we do it consciously or unconsciously.
The writer of this psalm was very wise when he said that we would be blessed if we didn’t hang around with wicked, sinful people. Granted we have all sinned and fallen short the glory of God. (Rom 3:23) And even after we become a Christian all of us sin to some extent. After all, sin is doing what God said not to do, or not doing what he said to do. Most Christians are pretty good at not doing things the Lord said not to do, but most of us fall terribly short in doing what the Lord would want us to do. Christians are human and are certainly a work in progress. Just like the apostle Paul we often find ourselves doing what we don’t want to do, and not doing what we want to do. (Rom 7:25) Paul concluded with, “What a wretched man I am!” But better still is the ray of hope he added, and this was, “Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God - through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
As Christians we need to do all we can to live a holy life, so we can enjoy our life and most of all glorify Jesus. Jesus saved us for much more than just not going to hell when we die. The victory over sin and death starts when we ask Jesus to forgive us of our sins and to come into our heart. Then with each passing day we strive to become more like the one we love the most, Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Like Paul, life can be frustrating for all Christians. Some days we take one step forward and two steps back in our Christ-likeness and Christian maturity. What we need to remember is that we are a people saved by grace and not by works. No amount of righteous living will undo our past sins or entitle us heaven. All that we are or ever will be in God’s eyes are filtered through the blood of Jesus the lover of our soul.
We do need to study God’s word, because it is as he is - unchanging. This is not to say that God can not change what he wants to do, but rather he can not change his nature, character or who he is. The more we know what he wants, the more we can try to do it. The more we know what he doesn’t like the more we can do to not do it! We want to bless the Lord, and we need to bless the Lord. Not only is he our God, but he loved us so much that he gave himself up for us just so we could be reconciled to him. So where does all this bring us regarding today’s scripture verse? Well, as Christians we do have an obligation, but it is not to the sinful nature or the world. Our obligation is to that of the Heavenly Father, the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ our Savior. We are God’s children and we need to try and bless God by living a life that will bring honor and glory to him. (Rom 8:12-17)
We are still in this world and have to daily deal with the things of this world and that includes not only sin, but sadness, trials, tribulations and the list goes on. While the world tries to pull us back into it, we don’t have to go running back that’s for sure. Remember what my mom used to tell me. So it is with debauchery. The world has many things that on the surface don’t seem too bad and may not actually be sin in itself, but they tend to draw us back into the things that do lead to sin. I have heard it said that one hit of some drugs puts a hook into a person that only gets deeper and more controlling with each new hit. We are much better off not playing with sin, than trying to undo the damage it caused and never do it again. The Holy Spirit will warn us about walking in the ways of the wicked, or associating with the sinful, but it is up to us to heed his warning and stay away. The more we flirt with sin, and hang around with those that purposefully do, the more we will apt to find ourselves back in the pig pin. Think often about God's wonderful grace that he has given us, but also the great price Jesus paid that we might enjoy it.
Prayer: In the garden Jesus, you said you were not praying for the world, but for those who would believe in you. You know we not only believe in you, but we love you Jesus! Please help us to have victory or temptation, evil and sin in our life, so we won’t have to hang our heads in regret. We ask this in your Holy name.
