Skip to main content

Pure Ways

                                             How can a young man keep his way pure?

By keeping it according to Your word.
 With all my heart I have sought You;
Do not let me wander from Your commandments.
I have treasured Your word in my heart,
So that I may not sin against You. (Psalm 119:9-11)

 

              I believe it is in the book The Practice of the Presence of God in which Brother Lawrence writes about times in which his finding himself imperfect and incapable of being otherwise. As I consider today’s passage, so like the passages from the past few days, and the question of really believing what we claim to believe, it seems that we return to the same challenge. Indeed, it is the same challenge that Paul wrote about in Romans 7.

          We want to be perfect. We want to keep our way pure. We get up in the morning with every intention of seeking God with all our hearts, and treasuring His  Word and His Spirit in our hearts, and three seconds later we’re caught up in the hustle and bustle of life: the dog wants out, or in, or out, or in; our stomachs are reminding us that it’s breakfast time, there are e-mails to answer, etc. The day whirls on and ends with our feeling that we accomplished nothing – and worse, that among the things we failed to accomplish are keeping our ways pure, living in accordance with His Word, and treasuring His Word in our hearts.

          What Brother Lawrence suggests is that we should take these matters to God. We have failed. We cannot help but fail unless He gives us success. Having done this, Brother Lawrence suggests that we put the matter behind us and set our sights once again on God, because it is as we move toward God that all of the rest will follow after. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Think About These Things

                 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4:8) This passage is a major challenge for me. Like everyone else, I struggle to keep my thoughts from wandering off into the weeds, then wondering what possible benefits those weeds might have… Sigh. But as a writer, I have to delve at least a little into the ignoble, wrong, impure, unlovely, and debased. After all, there’s no story if everything’s just as it should be and everyone’s happy. As Christians, there are times when we need to deal with all the negatives, but that makes it even more important that we practice turning our minds by force of attention to what is noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. It’s just too easy to get stuck in a swamp. With my...
1 comment
Read more

Higher Thoughts

  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the  Lord . “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)           The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,   for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord      so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (I Corinthians 2:15-16) If you read about the ancient gods of the various peoples, you’ll find that they think just like people. In fact, they think just like the sort of people we really wouldn’t want to be around. They think like the most corrupt Hollywood producer or, like hormone overloaded teens with no upbringing.   It’s embarrassing to read. I have a friend who argues that because God is not just like us, He is so vastly dif...
2 comments
Read more

Pure...

            The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. (I Timothy 1:5)   I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. (Revelation 3:15-16) I’m probably cheating - or mishandling the Bible, but earlier I was thinking about love being pure and purifying. And hatred being pure and purifying. And anger…joy…patience… fear… jealousy… courage…lust… and other strongly felt feelings, attitudes, and beliefs. Today’s verse brings purity and love together, so it’s the verse of the day, but it’s not really the focus. That means my motive for sharing it with you probably isn’t pure. As you read through my list, you   probably thought, “Yeah” about some, and “What’s she on?” about others. But consider how much hatred, a...
Post a Comment
Read more