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~Psalm 23:3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
Life’s lessons can be tough ones. To the believer, these lessons can be viewed in two ways:
- We accept the trial and learn what God intends for us to learn from it.
- We refuse to accept what God wants us to learn.
Either way, there is a lesson to be learned from the Master with each trial. Even if God’s instruction is not specific, He has taught us to depend on Him! All lessons from the Father dealing with character building are for our benefit. These lessons are all to lead us down a righteous path. Never would God lead us down a path of destruction. It is our own sinful flesh that leads us the wrong way.
If we are the type of believer who accepts our trial and looks to God for answers, we are admitting we need His help. That’s the foundation of spiritual growth. Being willing to accept God’s changes for us is the first step spiritual growth. Refusing His help is the sin of pride – we believe we can do it ourselves. There’s no peace in that.
If things are falling apart in your life, then why continue down that path? How is that going for you? Is your way bringing you total peace? Chances are, no! But God promises to restore our souls. This is not talking about losing one’s salvation and regaining it. According to Noah Webster, it means:
To revive; to resuscitate; to bring back to life.
God desires to revive us. God desires to resuscitate us. God desires to bring our beaten lives back to life. It is up to us to submit to His will and direction for us. When we allow God to restore, the end result is being led down a path of righteousness, which is always good for us!
There is no growth of character when life is fun and easy. Growth occurs during the hard and difficult times. Vegetation is sparse on the mountain top, but in the valley growth is plentiful. Remember: All sunshine all the time makes a desert.
~Anonymous
~James 1:8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
Have you ever walked over the rocks on the coastline? It is difficult, at best! Trying to maneuver your feet on the jagged rocks’ edges is difficult. You really cannot think about anything else because you’re focusing your thoughts on being stable.
Can you imagine your life like this? Imagine that your daily walk is comparable to walking on those rocks. James says that the double minded man is unstable in all his ways. Being of double mind, spiritually speaking, means that one vacillates between worldliness and Godliness. You’re either on the side of the fence where the world lives or you’re on the side of the fence where God’s will is. Even if you sit on the fence, it is the fence of indecision. Anyone who has sat on a fence knows that the seat is uncomfortable and it is not stable.
Purpose in your heart to get off this fence and become a single minded man who will be stable in all his ways. The believer who strives to abide this way will be kept by the God of all creation! The unstable wrestle with Scriptures and cannot live the life God intended for them.
~2 Peter 3:16 As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
“Gifts and power for service the Spirit surely desires to impart; but holiness and
spiritual worship come first.”
A. W. Tozer
~1 John 2:28 And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.
Why would the believer be ashamed at Christ’s coming? John exhorts us to abide in Christ. When one abides, he is living with Christ, day-to-day, and walking with Him each step of the way. It stands to reason that the believer who does not abide in Christ, will “live” outside of Christ. He will fall into sin and find himself straying further and further from God and His will.
I don’t want to be ashamed when Christ comes for me. I came across a quote by Charles Spurgeon that was really poignant and made quite an impact on me.
The sins of disciples of Christ are a thousand times worse than the sins of unbelievers, because they sin against a gospel of love, a covenant of mercy, against a sweet experience and against precious promises.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Let’s commit ourselves to abiding in Christ as of this very moment. Let’s confess, repent and forsake the sinful path we’ve been on and move forward on a path that will not bring shame but joy! I once heard a message on “Going back to 12:00 – start over!”
~Joshua 22:5 But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which Moses the servant of the LORD charged you, to love the LORD your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.
Our successful personal spiritual walk can be summarized in this verse. If we heed these points, we will walk closely to our Lord and won’t stray.
Joshua laid it out in six points:
- Be diligent in obeying God – when the Holy Spirit convicts our heart, we should be quick to heed.
- Love the Lord your God – love everything that He loves.
- We should walk in all His ways – our daily walk should be going in the same direction as His Word.
- Noah Webster defines “keep” in this verse as “guard.” Therefore, we should guard His Word, study it and defend it.
- Be so close to God that you are cleaving to Him – sticking close to God, which will result in following His will.
- Serving God with all our heart and soul – this was so important that it was repeated again in the New Testament in ~Matthew 22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. The believer who strives to do this can’t go wrong.
The child of God, the born-again believer, will be able to follow Joshua’s exhortation. To the Christian, this is his desire. Granted, the Christian will fail but will desire to get back on track. To the unbeliever, however, he will find it impossible and absurd. Oh that each Christian reading this would rededicate his life and walk in the counsel of this verse!
We are not what we ought to be, we are not what we want to be, we are not what we shall be. But we are something very different from what we used to be.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
~James 1:19 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:
I love how James exhorts us to be swift to hear and slow to speak. It’s a good thing God didn’t give us two mouths and only one ear! What kind of conversations would we have if we were half listening and twice as able to speak?!
Yes, this is a funny concept but I do believe this is what James was trying to communicate. We should listen twice as much as we speak. In so doing, we reap peace, not wrath. Anyone who takes the time to hold his tongue and spends more time listening won’t get himself into trouble. He won’t be quick to throw in his two cents worth and “open mouth, insert foot”!
We can learn so much from James’ wisdom. I could have saved myself a lot of heartache had I learned this early on in my life.
~Proverb 25:11 A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.
~Psalm 139:3 Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.
God knows everything – he is omniscient. He knows what I am experiencing and what I will encounter along my daily journey. He knows because His Spirit resides within me and He is always there, ready to guide.
As I look at this beautiful photograph of the Siuslaw River near Florence, OR (taken by a dear friend ,Pam Banegas), I see many types of paths. It reminds me of the different paths I encounter along the way. Some can be a smooth grassy path, comparable to an easy day with no great trial or tribulation. Another can be hilly, through dense forest, comparable to sickness, financial trials, etc. Yet another can be beside a calm lake, comparable to thirsting after God’s Word and gleaning from its pages.
Either way you look at the different paths, the Lord surrounds them all, according to Psalm 139:3. Our Father knows all our ways and none come to him by surprise. What great comfort this brings me!
~Genesis 18:19a For I know him…
God knows every detail in my. He knows my strength and weaknesses. He knows every fiber of my being Knowing all that, He would not allow a trial that would be too great for me to bear. To do so would mean that He is cruel. However, God is love (1 John 4:8, 16) and love is not an attribute that allows cruelty. It is this knowledge which increases my faith!! I know that I can bear each trial, each challenge, each task! I know because God loves me! Thank You, Lord!
God knows that you can stand that trial; He would not give it to you if you could not. It is His trust in you that explains the trials of life, however bitter they may be. God knows our strength, and He measures it to the last inch; and a trial was never given to any man that was greater than that man’s strength, through God, to bear it.
Charles E. Cowman
It was advertised that the devil was going to put his tools up for sale. On the date of the sale, the tools were placed for public inspection; each tool being marked with its sale price. They were a treacherous lot of implements:
- Hatred,
- Envy,
- Jealousy,
- Deceit,
- Lying,
- Pride, and so on.
Laid apart from the rest was a harmless looking tool, well worn and priced very high.
“What is the name of this tool”? asked one of the purchasers, pointing to it.
“That is Discouragement.” replied the devil.
“Why have you priced it so high”?
“Because it is more useful to me than the others. I can pry open and get inside a man’s heart with that when I cannot get near him with my other tools. Once I get inside, I can make him do what I choose. It is badly worn because I use it on almost everyone, since very few people know that it belongs to me.”
So where do you fit in this story? It’s a good one and it makes us think. The believer needs to fight discouragement by staying in the Word.
~3 John 1:4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.
Walking in truth requires action. We can know the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and accept it – this is forward motion. But to stop there and not continue is a travesty. Many are satisfied with merely crawling in spiritual matters. The Word of God is not a treasure to them and, therefore, they do not feed themselves with its truth on a daily basis.
When you first discover something that peaks your interest, your enthusiasm is high and you try to learn as much about it as possible. You do not rest until you have captured everything about your new interest. A good example is a new book by your favorite author. You cannot wait until you get the book home – you curl up on the couch and open to the first page, anxious to get caught up in the story.
The Christian should have this same enthusiasm with the truth from God’s Word. Unlike a story, each word of the Bible is God breathed. Each page uncovers truth after truth from the God of Creation. The Word of God reveals enough about God’s nature to give us a glimpse of our Creator and man’s need for a Saviour. We will not fully understand His nature until we reach Heaven. However, we have enough information to draw us closer to Him.
God is perfect love and perfect grace and mercy. Experiencing these traits as each page of the Bible unfolds brings joy to the believer. This joy is then shared with the unsaved world. There is no better testimony than that of a Christian who knows his God because he knows His Word!
Joy is increased by spreading it to others.
Robert Murray M’Cheyne
