It is your Choice

Psalm 119:81-88

“My soul longs for your salvation; I hope in your word.   My eyes long for your promise;
I ask, “When will you comfort me?”  For I have become like a wineskin in the smoke,
yet I have not forgotten your statutes.  How long must your servant endure?  When will you judge those who persecute me?  The insolent have dug pitfalls for me; they do not live according to your law. All your commandments are sure; they persecute me with falsehood; help me!  They have almost made an end of me on earth, but I have not forsaken your precepts.  In your steadfast love give me life, that I may keep the testimonies of your mouth.”

The footnotes on these verses say though the Psalmist was near death, he always looked to God and His precepts for relief.  As I was reading this first sentence, I turned it from a statement to a question, and after some reflection, my answer was yes.  The desire to know God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit has grown and is growing in my relationship with them.  I do not put faith in mankind, for God’s word tells me their hearts are set on evil.  It also gives me understanding when it states the world and it desires are passing away, but the one who does the will of God lives forever.  The promise of eternal life, not because of my righteousness, not because I have pleased God, but for only one reason and it is found in Ephesians 2:8,9. “For by grace you have been saved through faith.  And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”  

At 77 and closing in on 78, if that’s God’s plan for my life on planet earth, it gets clearer each day that you’re a mess, and so am I.  We long for contentment in what the world offers and often, way too frequently we chase after those things and not the precepts and statutes of God.  In fact, many church attenders fashion a god into something that works for them, it’s like all the other pagan gods, it cannot see or hear, and it has no authority over its subjects.  It is not the I am, it’s not the Alpha and the Omega, it is not the Creator, and it cannot give you joy or peace, when what you love is removed from you.  Most of all it does not have the ability to have a personal relationship with you, it would never be able to die for your sins and make you in right standing with a Holy God.

The word “Sanctified” is not used often in preaching, but it was part of the High Priestly prayer of Jesus to the Father.  In John’s gospel it is recorded in chapter 17:18-19, ^“As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.   And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.”  Often, we read past such words in Scripture with little or no understanding of the use of the word.  But Jesus was doing this for you and me who by faith have entered into God’s grace, by the blood of Jesus Christ that was shed for us on the cross.  Jesus has consecrated us to the Father, He has blessed and dedicated and purified us before the Father.  

You and I have been set free from the control of the evil one, and now it’s a choice, to follow the statutes and precepts of God or to walk in our authority and sin.  Each day we choose, and that is life on planet earth, but for all who are in Christ, they are sanctified.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice