Morning Musings-Following That Life of Obedience

   Morning Musings with the boys at breakfast...




Following the life of obedience from our day of salvation, that day we are "born again" into God's family and have our "second birthday", we gain an inheritance of everlasting life in heaven.  We will encounter suffering for our faith and we are called upon to become more like Christ.  These, as mentioned many times before, are all part of what is called the 'sanctifying process'.

I'd like to state that, although not mentioned here in 1 Peter 1:13-15, that being truthful is something we really need to learn better.  Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life..."  If we are to be His followers we need to be more truthful and stop practicing deceit.

Turn all the way back to Psalm 101:7 and what King David had to say on the subject.  David tried to use deceit the time he committed adultery with Bathsheba and impregnated her.  (2 Samuel 11).  He recalled her husband Uriah back from the war in the hopes he would go home to his wife so that the pregnancy would appear to be by Uriah and not by David.

He was practicing deceit.  It all backfired on him though as Uriah wouldn't go home but slept in the king's palace's gateway; a public affair instead of private!  

King David then committed murder.

Later David repented of all these things but he suffered the consequences four times over in the death of four of his sons.

He repented so much that he came to hate deceit and could then say,

"No one who practices deceit will dwell in my house, no one who speaks falsely will stand in my presence" (Psalm 101:7).

 This is certainly true of God too in the most perfect form.  He cannot have any such deceit in His presence.  God, who knows all things and knows our hearts and minds cannot be fooled by us even if other people have been.  When we belong to Him let us live uprightly before Him and all people.  Let us live truthfully.  Jesus is "the Way, the Truth and the Life".   Followers of Jesus will follow truth.

Our Peter portion says, "Be holy in all you do...because I (God) am holy."  (vs 15).  As we are following obedience to Christ and "conforming" ourselves to Him and His will and ways, we will not conform to the "evil desires" of our sinful nature.

As verse 13 admonishes, "prepare your minds for action".  We need to have that mindset that gets 'programmed' so to speak, to tell the truth, to obey, to live uprightly, and to be self-controlled.  This is a major part of the struggle.  However we followers of Jesus Christ have been "called to holiness"  (vs 15) so we cannot lobby for any loopholes to live otherwise.  What we have in our minds will often come out in our actions.  So as we train ourselves to be holy by preparing to be so in our minds, making that our choice and decision, then our actions can follow suit to be pleasing in God's sight.

You see King David used his eyes and then what he saw he was thinking about.  Then he acted it out.  He did not use self-control.  He had not, as far as we are told, at least, made a decision to NOT engage in adultery.  Our friend Job though, made a vow with his eyes!  In Job 31:1, Job "made a covenant with his eyes not to look lustfully at a young woman".  He had prepared himself in his mind and I believe you could say that went all the way down to his heart and was a sustaining restraint upon his actions.

This is what we too can do, not just with choosing against adultery but with deciding to speak the truth, to be holy and whatever else that is pleasing to the Lord that goes along with following that life of obedience.  Pray for yourself and for your brothers and sisters in Christ to have this preparedness.  By God's grace we will become ever more "holy as He is holy".   Remember we have not been left to our own devises.  The Holy Spirit indwells us and is our Comforter and Guide who will lead us into all truth.

If and when we do fail, as David did, we, too,  can repent and confess it all to the Lord Jesus and He will "forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness".  (1 John 1:9).  What a mighty and holy God we serve.  We will not rue the day of our second birth in which we decided to follow a life of obedience to God.

                                                              ~ERC  2016~