On most days of the week, I’m a brat. I want life my way and I want it now. I have no patience to wait and my discipline is such that if I were my own child, I’d beat me. I’m as scattered as the chaff that flies in the wind so often spoken of in the scripture and every bit as accomplished with bits and pieces of me flying here, there and everywhere and seldom gathering into once location for a finished product with purpose.
Even this morning my mind is a dozen different places. Some literal places and some spiritual places, and I’m trying my best to rein in my thoughts but I declare they’re like a bucking bronco! And then I read Psalm 119:59… and took the bull by the horns. Well, almost… until I got sidetracked looking for bull images. Whose mind works like that!
I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies. Psalm 119:59
My ways are like a bull in a china shop… I want to turn my feet into a testimony for God. One that shouts of Him and whispers of me.
My Thoughts
What’s wrong with my thoughts? Well, most of the time they’re in the flesh! It’s hard to stay focused on spiritual matters while living in this world. We make mistakes, people hurt us, Satan plots and we provide him with an avenue into our minds like a super highway.
The psalmist said in Psalm 94:11~ The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity.~ It’s all about us is it not? What we want, what we need. To get where God needs us to be we’ve got to hate what God hates, and love what God loves.
Psalm 119:113 says it like this ~ I hate vain thoughts: but thy law do I love.~ To get away from the vanity, and guilt causing thoughts of our minds, we have to get into the word of God.
My Understanding
Understanding is the comprehension and acceptance of the truth. When is the last time you’ve gotten “real” with yourself? Really examined your life and the direction that God desires you to move in. Not necessarily career wise, but life in general. What to eat, wear, listen to, etc. The very things that make up our day. Do we have a full understanding of what effect those day to day decisions, regardless of how miniscule, have on our life? If I strove to understand God’s desires for everything in my life… I’m pretty sure they’d be some serious changing necessary. David said in Psalm 119:99 ~ I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation.~
David mediated on what God was doing and what God had done. It’s not about us.
My Reasoning
If we’re not careful, reasoning becomes religious. It’s about the things of life as the world sees them, not the way God sees them. Faith doesn’t always makes sense.
Mark 2:5-7
When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. But there was certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts, Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only?
When life happens we view it this side of Heaven; we often times do not see what’s going on in the spiritual realm. When Jesus healed the man sick of palsy, and forgave his sins, He did so because of the man’s faith, not because of his reasoning. It was a two for one sale that day! There was no reasoning in the four men who tore off the roof of the house to get their friend to Jesus, it was faith! And when the religious realm heard the words of the Lord they reasoned with in themselves, “How could this man forgive sin?” It didn’t make any sense in their religious world because they had no relationship with God.
My Needs
I have needs, but I more often than not get them confused with my wants, and they are many. I’m working with a young man who’s greatest desire is to come to the United States to study the scripture. His name is Juma and he lives in Tanzania. He works hard and he has needs that I’ve never had to comprehend, because I’m that spoiled brat that wants everything now.
These words of David pierce my heart this morning…
Deliver me from the oppression of man: so will I keep thy precepts.
David was being oppressed by others, I however oppress myself, when I don’t spend enough time in the Word of God and live my life for Him, not me. It’s like that bull in a china shop, knocking over all the delicacies of life just to get through. That is how I often live life… just pushing my way through to the next thing, never stopping to savor what God is doing along life’s way.
David said in my original text 119:59 that he turned his feet unto God’s testimonies. Take note that my points spell out God’s message today. T.U.R.N.
What direction are you going? Your way, or God’s?
