Who is your portion?

Psalm 119: 57-64

“The Lord is my portion; I promise to keep your words.  I entreat your favor with all my heart; be gracious to me according to your promise.  When I think on my ways, I turn my feet to your testimonies; I hasten and do not delay to keep your commandments.  Though the cords of the wicked ensnare me, I do not forget your law.  At midnight I rise to praise you, because of your righteous rules.  I am a companion of all who fear you, of those who keep your precepts.  The earth, O Lord, is full of your steadfast love; teach me your statutes!”

Do you recall the Levites did not get an allotment of land as they entered into the promised land of Canaan and thus relied on God, the Psalmist is saying I’m doing the same, I’m looking to God against all who oppose me?  

As a follower of Christ, it has been my experience that the portion God has given us is often not our desire, do you recall in the letters of James he referred to our desire to seek what the world has to offer and not the things of God.  James 4:1-3, “What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?  You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet, but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God.  When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.”

Why are we not happy with our portion?  Could it be we have fed our minds the worlds desires by exposing our thoughts on all the want creators and the pleasures of this life?  Have you made a promise to your God to obey His authority and word?  It is impossible to do so without searching His word daily and spending time allowing God to speak into your heart and mind.

Obedience is doing what God tells you the moment you understand, not when it seems right in your mind.  Anything less than doing it when your told is disobedience, how often are you reluctant to trust God?  As a follower of Christ, we could learn much from the Psalmist in this area.  His closest friendships was with people who feared God and those who held to the Lord's precepts.

As the child of God, a member of his family, how do you see the world around you, full of fear and little hope, or full of God’s steadfast love?  Do you long for a better understanding of God’s precepts and statues?

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice