PSALM 119:34 – Give me understanding, that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart.

THEME OF THE DAY. THE STEPS IN LIVING THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. The Christian life doesn’t just happen. I often wish my life would immediately sprout the Fruit of the Spirit without purging from my Heavenly Father, without painful trials humbling me, without the call to gut-wrenching self-denial, and without the necessity of self-discipline. I am sure all of us would like to wake up one morning and instantaneously be like the Lord Jesus Christ. Someday we will experience that completed work, but that day is not today. In God’s providence and eternal plan, He has ordained the Christian life a cooperative effort between His child and His Spirit. The Apostle Paul would affirm this truth in his first letter to the Corinthians, “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10). And the agent of work to make us like Christ and live the Christian life is the Word of God. With that setting, what are the steps in living the Christian life? They unfold for us in today’s scripture.

First, the Christian life is a knowledge-based life and that of the will of God revealed through the Word of God. The Psalmist prays, “Give me understanding.” This is a great and necessary prayer every time we open our Bibles and hear the Word preached. We seek the Father, through the Spirit, to give us an understanding of what we are reading and hearing. Without this divine work of illumination, no transformation in our lives by the Word will occur. So, if we are to live the Christian life, we must know the truths from the Word to live the Christian life. This also tells us something else. Neglect the Bible and we remain ignorant of God’s will. It is foolish to pray to know God’s will but ignore the Bible. God reveals His will to us through His Word. To neglect the Bible is to neglect the knowledge to live the Christian life. But knowledge alone doesn’t define the whole of living the Christian life. In fact, the Apostle Paul tells us the danger of knowledge alone in the life of God’s children. It creates pride (1 Corinthians 8:1). That leads to the second step in living out the Christian life.

The knowledge we obtain to live the Christian life must become knowledge practiced. Note the reason for the Psalmist’s prayer of understanding – “that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart.” The Psalmist models for us the proper understanding of why the Spirit of God gives us insight to His Word; to do it, to put it into practice, to take understanding and put the feet of obedience to it. And here is where we fail too often. Here is where the “disconnect” often occurs. We hear the Word, read the Word, but then fail to make conscious and deliberate attempts to do the Word. And this always results in joyless Christianity. Our walk with the Lord lacks vitality, life, and enjoyment for without obedience to the illuminated Word, we cannot live the Christian life which in its simplest terms is “walking with Jesus”.

So, God has given us the means to live the Christian life; His Spirit and His Word. He has also given us the responsibility to do what He teaches us. Let’s follow the Psalmist’s steps in living the Christian life by taking our understanding of God’s Word and put the “feet of obedience” to that understanding.

PRAYER: “Father, help me to know Your truth and then live Your truth.”
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QUOTE: “The Christian life is a doing life, not of activity but of obedience to known truth.”