PSALM 119:30 – I have chosen the way of faithfulness; I set your rules before me.”
THEME OF THE DAY: OUR LIVES ARE SHAPED BY DAILY CHOICES. After we became Christians, the greatest power in our lives has been given – the power of choice. Prior to, we were dead in trespasses and sins. That included dead in our wills with no power to choose anything but sin. But then comes the Gospel.
The apostle Paul writes . . . But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— (Ephesians 2:4-5).
With new life in Christ, we now can make choices toward Godliness. Yet, this also cuts the other way. We may also choose the opposite – sin, or simply wrong decisions based on wrong priorities. Like all the rich blessings God gives His children, they might be neglected, presumed upon, or used for our own selfish ends, not His. The renewed will is one of those gifts. We can make bad decisions that will have negative consequences in our spiritual walks, and not just negative, but damaging. For instance, as Christian parents, we may make bad spiritual decisions not modeling the importance of the local church by our inconsistent attendance. If we have made this choice, don’t be surprised our children want nothing to do with church. They are only following what they observed. Another bad decision is choosing worldly pleasures over teaching the Word to our children. Should we make pleasure and worldly activities more important than time in the scripture, why should we expect them to love the Bible?
In today’s scripture we find the Psalmist making right choices. He models for us the way to make wise decisions which will shape our daily lives. And remember, our lives are ultimately shaped by daily decisions.
What we observe from the Psalmist is his commitment to faithfulness and this faithfulness is directed by God’s Word or rules. We may paraphrase today’s verse like this, “I determined to shape my life based on faithfulness to Your rules, or Word.” This is the way to exercise our renewed wills. We take God’s Word and set it before us as the guide and discerning agent of the decisions we will make in life. And at the end of the day, or life, the true measurement of “spiritual success” will not be the amount of Christian service we performed, but our faithfulness to God’s Word guiding and shaping our lives. We read from the Apostle Paul this calling of the Christian; the call to faithful stewardship of all that God has given us to include the Gospel and the one life we have – This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful (1 Corinthians 4:1-2).
Decisions in life. We make them each day. May the Lord help us do so by His Word with an aim to prove faithful in following His Word. If we do, we will live with no regrets and what a joy that is and will be!
PRAYER: “Father, may I see my life in light of day-to-day choices that shape my life.”
QUOTE: “The decisions we make today are the building blocks on which our lives are built.”
Because of Him,
Pastor Jim