"A Busy Temple"
Walking with God through the Lord Jesus Christ requires an active heart and mind.
"When Thou saidst, Seek ye my face, my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek" (Psalm 27:8).
"Think on these things" (Philippians 4:8).
First we determine to grow in the knowledge of our Lord and His love to the degree we consistently respond in kind. "We love Him because He first loved us" (I John 4:19). Then we realize in the light of Scripture that loving God (and the corollary of loving people) requires intelligent response to the truth of His Word. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God… with all thy mind" (Matthew 22:37). Motivation must unite with Spirit and Scripture led application. "And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment" (Philippians 1:9).
This leads us to seek the Lord in several different ways. First, we consistently read the Bible in order to know what kind of God we seek to love, trust, and obey. "Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path" (Psalm 119:105). We then realize that many opportunities to remember our Lord and His Word await us along the pathways of life. "I will walk in Thy truth" (Psalm 86:11). We also seek the fellowship of like-hearted believers who share our determination of heart and mind. "I was glad when they said unto me, "Let us go into the house of the Lord" (Psalm 122:1). Finally, we live in anticipation of the Lord's working in the entirety of our life, realizing that we cannot know all He is doing. We can know some of His doings, however,, and we can more as we join the Psalmist and the prophet in their determinations: "My expectation is from Him… I will look for Him" (Psalm 62:5; Isaiah 8:17).
God works by His Spirit in our hearts and minds when we trust the Lord Jesus. His active presence in our spirits leads us to engage our minds. This results in our inner being serving as a busy temple of grace, truth, and worship composed of both devotion and thought. We are not required to be brilliant in order to walk with God in the love of Christ. We do have to think, however, loving Him with both heart and mind, which leads to our hands and feet being empowered to "work the works of God" (John 6:28). This is life, the life of the Lord Jesus revealed to us, in us, and through us as our busy inner temple leads us to glorify and reveal Him.
"The meditation of my heart shall be of understanding."
(Psalm 49:3)
Weekly Memory Verse
"When Thou saidst, Seek ye my face, my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek."
(Psalm 27:8)
5692
No comments:
Post a Comment