Victorious Living

Psalm 81:6-10

“I relieved your shoulder of the burden; your hands were freed from the basket. In distress you called, and I delivered you; I answered you in the secret place of thunder; I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah
Hear, O my people, while I admonish you!  O Israel, if you would but listen to me! There shall be no strange god among you; you shall not bow down to a foreign god.  I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.  Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.”

If I asked what the key to living a victorious Christian life is, I believe these four verses hold the answer.  If there is a keyword, it is “Listen,” and maybe we as a culture have forgotten it’s meaning.  Listen: to make a conscious effort to hear; attend closely, so as to hear.  How about to give heed; take advice.

Buddy Neubauer introduced me to the writing of Blaise Pascal an amazing man who lived in 1600.  Ponder on this quote; “One-half of the ills of life come because men are unwilling to sit down quietly for thirty minutes to think through all the possible consequences of their acts.”  

God has spoken to mankind from the beginning in the Garden, and He is still speaking, but the noise is so loud we do not hear from Him.  What is God telling the people of Israel, and what is God telling you and me, “to Listen to?”  Any good salesperson knows the key to selling is the ability to listen to the buyer, and more sales are lost because they would rather talk than listen.  In sales, we must know the F.A.B., which stands for features, advantages, and benefits of the product we are selling.  What is the benefit of listening to God?

First and very important, we will be admonished, yes, the Lord will make us aware of the sin in our lives that have broken fellowship with a God who is Holy.  The second part is His counsel to guide us into a life of blessing and peace.  Most important is if we “Listen” to God we will not be open to the little gods of this world.  We will not walk in a world that is driven by fear, hate, and all the things they produce.  To know the peace, joy, and hope that is ours in Christ, we will love our God and the people He has made!

In closing one last quote from Pascal; “Not only do we know God by Jesus Christ alone, but we know ourselves only by Jesus Christ. We know life and death only through Jesus Christ. Apart from Jesus Christ, we do not know what is our life, nor our death, nor God, nor ourselves.”

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice