Living in the Spirit
July 28, 2020
Scripture Reading: Psalm 17:1-7, 15
Hear a just cause, O Lord; attend to my cry;
give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit.
From you let my vindication come;
let your eyes see the right.
If you try my heart, if you visit me by night,
if you test me, you will find no wickedness in me;
my mouth does not transgress.
As for what others do, by the word of your lips
I have avoided the ways of the violent.
My steps have held fast to your paths;
my feet have not slipped.
I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God;
incline your ear to me, hear my words.
Wondrously show your steadfast love,
O saviour of those who seek refuge
from their adversaries at your right hand.
As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness;
when I awake I shall be satisfied, beholding your likeness.
If you have read many of my posts, you have realized that I am big on self-examination guided by the Spirit. It is an attempt to see how closely my self-assessment matches God’s assessment of me. Thus, if God examines me, will God find no wickedness, no transgression, no violence, or no wavering from God’s straight and narrow path? I think if God handed me a checklist scoring these items, I might be surprised at the results. God looks at the heart according to 1 Samuel 16:7. We must account for evil thoughts because when we do not clean out those thoughts, they can grow and overtake our hearts.
I just finished reading the book Rush by Stephen Fried. It is a great historical read. More than that, it is the history of a man dealing with the good and evil occurring in the USA during the Revolutionary era and the positive influences he had on society at that time. In the final analysis, we must live our lives so that we can face God in God’s righteousness, not our own.
Prayer: Lord, we are barraged with bad things happening to good people, with the failure of our society to turn things to your righteousness. We are called to be a part of your vision of creating a world ruled by love, yet we get so caught up in the webs of evil we sometimes lose sight of the positive differences we can make. Grant us the courage to follow your way and help us to identify any aspects of our lives that are contributing to the chaos. Create in us clean hearts to do your service. Amen.
All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.