Acknowledge God's Direction

As we have begun the New Year many have made resolutions and are striving to change their lives in some way.  During the next few days we will look at ways we need to acknowledge God in the New Year.  The principles are taken from Proverbs 3.

Proverbs 3:1–4 (NKJV) ¹My son, do not forget my law, But let your heart keep my commands; ²For length of days and long life and peace they will add to you. ³Let not mercy and truth forsake you; Bind them around your neck, Write them on the tablet of your heart, ⁴And so find favor and high esteem in the sight of God and man.

We need to acknowledge God’s direction or learn God’s truth.   The challenge in verse one is “do not forget my law”.  To forget would mean that I am not mindful or I do not have a proper response to God’s law.  The first step in not being forgetful is to know, to be “increasing in the knowledge of God” (Col 1:9-10) and His Word.  God reveals his law, which is His will, in His Word.  Practically I acknowledge God’s law by reading His Word, putting myself under the teaching of His Word, working to memorize His Word. (Psalm 119:11)   The positive side of this challenge is “Let your heart keep my commandments.”  When our heart, that is our mind and will, is set on being obedient to God’s commands we will want to know these commandments by heart.  Our desire to obey will drive us to want to know God’s Word.

In verse two the writer continues “do not let loyal love and faithfulness leave you.”  This “mercy” or “loyal love” is “fidelity to obligations rising from relationships.”  And “truth” or “faithfulness” is that which can be relied on because of stability.  But when these words are put together they are “faithful love” combined these individual words give us a further meaning.  The “binding” and “writing” is stressing that the teaching become second nature, a regular part of the life.  The ramifications of this terminology are that the disciple is actually subject to the Lord, not the teacher, and that the requisite “discipline” is respect and obedience for the Lord and his teaching and not merely for a human instructor^[1]

With these principles come some promises which are length of days, long life, and peace.  One does not have to talk with too many individuals to realize that people desire long life, but even more than that they desire the life they have to be peaceful, yet how many are willing to get to know God’s Word so that they might experience it?  The second promise is to have favor and a good name by God and man.  An individual may have a good reputation before man, but this goes beyond that to having a life of integrity before God and being pleasing in His eyes.  These blessings are in opposition to the individual who is not faithful who is promised in Prov. 13:15, “The way of the unfaithful is hard.”

 

Our hope is that you might Acknowledge God’s Direction in this New Year!

The video version of this is available at www.youtube.com/user/churchoflittleton    FW # 57

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^[1] Allen P. Ross, "Proverbs" In , in The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Volume 5: Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1991), 916.

First Word # 7 Psalm 119:97

Psalm 119:97 (NKJV) ⁹⁷Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day.

The law is God’s Word in David’s time.  It was the law of Moses the first five books of the Bible.  God has given us more books now in the cannon of Scripture, 66 total. 

His love for  God’s Word brought him to the point of meditating upon it all day.

James Swanson gives us this definition of meditation, “the act. of giving considerable thought about a person or subject, with a focus of responding properly to the information”^[1]

How well are we familiar with God’s Word that we can spend our day thinking about it?  Do we consider what Scripture and it’s principles that apply to what we are trying to accomplish during this day.

In the following three verses the writer of the psalm recognizes three benefits to this meditation. 

They say, ⁹⁸You, through Your commandments, make me wiser than my enemies; For they are ever with me. ⁹⁹I have more understanding than all my teachers, For Your testimonies are my meditation.

¹⁰⁰I understand more than the ancients, Because I keep Your precepts. (Psalm 119:98–100) (NKJV)

1.   Wiser than his enemies - These enemies would be ones violating God’s laws who God will judge.

2.   More understanding than teachers. – His teachers did not meditate on the testimonies enough to keep them.  They were missing the blessing and facing the consequences not obeying the testimony that God had given to Moses.

3.   Understand more than the aged – They chose not to meditate upon the precepts and thereby broke the covenant of God and would miss out on the intended blessing.

In this passage we are challenged to:

a.   Evaluate our love for God’s law.  What is of more value to us?  What do we give more of our free time to?

b.   Evaluate where our mind is wondering when we are not about a focused task.  Does it come back to God’s Word?

c.   Evaluate our desire to live a life by God’s principles.  Am I concerned enough with pleasing God through obedience that I want to know His principles by which to live?

 My hope for you today is that your love for God’s word would grow to the point that your mind automatically goes to it as you have time to think and determine God’s plan for your life on daily moment by moment basis.

Note: The video version of this is available at www.youtube.com/churchoflitteleton

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^[1] James Swanson, Dictionary of Biblical Languages With Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament), electronic ed. (Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997).

First Word # 2 : Psalm 1

Psalm 1:1–2 (ESV)

1Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;

2but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.

In these familiar verses we are reminded of the blessing that God promises to those who do five things.  Three are negative and two are positive.

The first is that he promises a man will be blessed (happy and content) if he chooses not to walk in the counsel of the wicked.  So we must ask ourselves, “”when I have a difficulty or a problem to whom do I go to receive counsel?  Who do I send my child to for counsel at school?  Do they have Biblical and Godly goal in mind for my children?”

The second negative challenge is to avoid “standing in the way of sinners”.  Do I place myself continually where I am going to be influenced and taking part with those who have no desire to be honoring God with their lives or their speech?

The final negative challenge is not to sit in the seat of scoffers.  Do I avoid placing myself under the instruction and admonition of those who scoff at God and those who don’t live for him?

If I choose to spend enough time with those who are living in opposition to God that they affect my life, I will end up following them in their way.  And the end of the Psalm makes it clear that these “sinners” will not stand in the Day of Judgment, nor with the righteous, but that the “way of the ungodly will perish”

On the positive side, the first challenge is to delight in the law of God.  Can we say that we delight in God’s law?  We might say that we delight in ice cream or chocolate, but what about God’s law.  Is it a drive of our emotions and passions to be able to have time in God’s law, God’s Word?

David’s delight in the law of God brought him to the second positive challenge to have a “blessed” life.  “In His law he meditates day and night”.  When we have time for our mind to wander, to think about whatever it is that pleases us, where does it go?  Does it go to God’s Word?

For those who do, God promises great blessings in this passage.  He says we will be like a tree that never has lack of water so there can always be fruit and that our life will be prosperous, because a life guided by God’s Word will bring glory to God in everything that is done.  Our prosperity may not look like what the world and the ungodly one’s  are looking for, but the opportunity to live for God and glorify Him in our lives is worth the eternity that we will get to spend getting to know God.  For, our present life is nothing but a vapor that quickly vanishes away., according to James in Jam. 4:14  

The videdo of this can be seen at http://www.fbclittletonil.org/First%20Word.html