Devotional for 11/15/15
What would you say is your theme song? Some people seem to be perpetually happy, while others seem angry with the whole world and intent on making everyone around them miserable. Most fall somewhere in-between. How do you normally start your day? Some people have to set an alarm to get up for work, but then they hit the snooze button... more than once. They may be thinking of all the reasons they don't want to get up and go to work. Others don't have to get up at a certain time for a job, but the thought of facing the day is more than they can bear. Or they just don't have anything motivating them to get moving. Others have a different perspective. They have a morning date every day that entices them away from the warm covers. This rendezvous is with a lover who would do anything for them. He loves them so much that he would die for them, and did. It is a time of prayer and meditation with their Lord, Jesus Christ. This kind of start can set the theme for their whole day!
Psalm 101 (NIV) "I will sing of your love and justice; to you, Lord, I will sing praise. I will be careful to lead a blameless life - when will you come to me? I will conduct the affairs of my house with a blameless heart. I will not look with approval on anything that is vile. I hate what faithless people do; I will have no part in it. The perverse of heart shall be far from me; I will have nothing to do with what is evil. Whoever slanders their neighbor in secret, I will put to silence; whoever has haughty eyes and a proud heart, I will not tolerate. My eyes will be on the faithful in the land, that they may dwell with me; the one whose walk is blameless will minister to me. No one who practices deceit will dwell in my house; no one who speaks falsely will stand in my presence. Every morning I will put to silence all the wicked in the land; I will cut off every evildoer from the city of the Lord."
What seems to be the theme of this Psalm above? At first it appears to be one of singing praises to a loving and just God. The writer, a king, is also pledging to live a righteous life, both on the inside - a blameless heart - and in what he focuses on the outside with his eyes - which can affect the heart inside. For us that would be things like the type of TV we watch, music we choose, or sites on the computer we visit. The psalmist is promising not to fool himself into thinking that vile things are acceptable to watch. But then he goes into what seem to be complaints about other people - the vile, faithless, perverse, evil, slanderers, secretive, haughty and proud. We can often get wrapped up in seeing the faults of other people and even blame them for our own hardships. But the writer is actually promising not to surround himself with deceitful liars and wicked evildoers who would pull him away from God. We too must remember that we are affected by those with whom we choose to associate. If we want to change our lives, sometimes we must change who we are always around, if that is what is influencing us negatively. That is not to say that we should not pray for them or try to lead them to a Godly life. But we must realize that we also are not perfect, and we need God's loving forgiveness too. None of us can lead a fully blameless life. Only our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, was sinless. Thankfully God is both just and merciful and forgives us!
written by
Jan Andersen
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