The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"Oh!"
"Oh that my ways were directed to keep Thy statutes!" (Psalm 119:5).
The Psalmist's lament does not apply to born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.
"It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13).
Through the indwelling Holy Spirit, God does work in Christians to direct our keeping of His statues and pleasing of His heart. We may or may not respond, but the promise of God's working in us does not proceed from our response, but rather from His promise. Remember and affirming our Lord's faithful working in us goes far in strengthening our confidence, determination, and the doing of "His good pleasure."
"The Word of God… effectually worketh also in you that believe" (I Thessalonians 2:13).
Believers live for God by living from God. To the degree we know and devote ourselves to this blessed truth will be the degree to which we walk accordingly. Indeed, we did not awaken to this day with responsibility to somehow achieve the standard of life - Christ's life - in and of ourselves. Even the most cursory awareness of our Savior's quality of character, nature, and way must tell us of our need for a motivating power not of this world, and surely not of ourselves. "Walk even as He walked?" (I John 2:6). As a preacher once said, "Good luck with that! And you're going to need a whole lot more than luck!"
Thankfully, we have a whole lot more. The One who spoke an immeasurably vast creation into existence by the power of His Word dwells in every member of His even more immeasurable spiritual creation in Christ. "Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding, abundantly above all we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us" (Ephesians 3:20; emphasis added). God mightily works in all to empower our capacity to walk as did our Lord. Through ignorance or unbelief we may not experience the enormity of such grace. The grace abides and works nevertheless, thus making possible the continued walk of the faithful believer, and the renewed walk of the failing saint.
From "Oh that my ways were directed to keep Thy statutes" to "Oh! My ways are directed to keep Thy statutes!" This is the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the ever presiding promise of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Our spiritual enemies seek to distract us from such grace. They know likely better than do we ourselves the power that resides and works in us (having been bludgeoned so often by it since the day of Pentecost). Let us then arise in the light of God, the life of Christ, and the liberating power of the Holy Spirit to rejoice in steps directed, based on a heart inhabited by "the power that worketh in us." For every believer, this is truth, this is reality, and this is the promise of our Father, made possible by the redeeming work of His Son. Let us not waste so great a gift, purchased by so high a cost. Oh yes, our ways are directed to keep His statutes!
"And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work."
(II Corinthians 9:8)
Weekly Memory Verse
And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.
(II Corinthians 9:8)
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