Purposeful Pursuit

Those who love your instructions have great peace and do not stumble. (Psalm 119:165 NLT)

God's commandments are burdensome and 'too rigid' for those who have never placed their trust in them. The more we discover the truths in his Word, the more we realize there is a great deal of safety and security in following his instructions. Yet, we sometimes don't do a very good job following those commands, right? What happens when we choose to ignore one or more of his commands? Do we face his condemnation? If we try to rationalize our disobedience, we may actually experience the consequences of that disobedience, but even that is not his condemnation. The more we discover about God through his Word, the more we realize that our failure at obedience is not the end - there is grace available to those who seek it.

It would be much better if we never stumbled, right? It is pretty unrealistic to think we will believe everything God says the first time we are exposed to his truth - we might struggle with it a bit because it is so different from the way we have been acting or thinking at times. We think we have to help ourselves, while his word tells us plainly that we are to put our trust in him. We imagine our sins aren't 'all that bad', while he points out that even knowing what needs to be done and choosing not to do it is sin. We might think work hard, deserving a 'little time to ourselves', ignoring the instruction to take time each day to give ourselves to the intake of his word and some time alone with him. Until we understand the purpose of his instructions, we might not actually follow them.

I have bought many of those 'assemble at home' pieces of furniture. Some were quite easily assembled - kind of out of intuition. Others required me to look at the pictures, examine the pieces, hold things together before attaching them to see if it looked correct. All the pieces had a purpose, but it wasn't always apparent what that purpose was from the start. When I installed a new door latch and entry lock on my front door, the device looked simple enough in the box even though the instructions made it seem a bit more complicated. There were many pieces provided just in case the type of door I had was hollow, steel, or wood. Different screws for each type of door. Different ways to attach it - all with their own purpose. God's word may seem like it is pretty simple until we try to put it into practice in our lives. We find it has more than one way of being applied - depending upon the situation!

God's instruction will keep us from stumbling, but the way it helped us yesterday may not be the same way it helps us today. Depending upon the situation, his word has many applications, but the truth of it never changes. We may try to bend it to 'fit' the situation, but he will bring the best solution - it just may not be the solution we expected! When we purposefully take in God's Word, preparing our hearts to do as it says, we can count on him revealing how to use it every time we need it. Just sayin!