OUR
THOUGHTS MUST BE SHAPED BY THE WORD OF GOD
Psalm
37:5,6
5
Commit your way to the Lord;
trust
in him, and he will act.
6 He
will bring forth your righteousness as the light,
As
David continues in this psalm, having reminded us not to envy the wicked, even
if they seem to prosper and have what we think we need, he goes on to tell us
what our attitudes and resolve should be.
We must truly commit and trust our lives
to the Lord. God
is at work all the time. Although His purposes would never be thwarted by our faithless
distrust, we would suffer loss of inner peace and fail to walk in
righteousness.
We must relinquish our natural desire
to have control over our lives. Committing our ways to the Lord includes at least two
ideas: One is to truly desire eternal values. We cannot allow the world to make
its standards ours, rather, we must be driven by God’s eternal purposes. He
wants to spiritually mature us into the image of His Son, He wants us to help
other believers in their walk of sanctification, and He wants us to share the
Gospel with a lost world. The second one is to find true contentment in what
God is ordaining for us.
I must constantly ask myself a very
simple question: “What is driving my life”? I must trust God. How do you know if
you are trusting God? A trusting heart is a peaceful heart.
Isaiah
26:3,4
You keep him in perfect peace
whose mind is stayed on you,
because he trusts in you.
Trust in the Lord forever,
for the Lord God is an
everlasting rock.
Our thoughts must be shaped by the
Word of God.
We must control our minds. The character of God, His power, His wisdom, and His
love should bring complete comfort for us. God never changes; His perfect and
righteous purposes are eternal.
When
we truly commit our way to the Lord, then our actions will also be visibly
righteous. People will see God at work in us.
As
Jesus told His disciples about His departure, an event that would rock their
world, He also left them with some words that should accompany His every
follower:
John
14:1
“Let not your hearts be
troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.
The
psalmist goes on to tell us what we should and should not do.
Psalm
37:7,8
7
Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him;
fret
not yourself over the one who prospers in his way,
over
the man who carries out evil devices!
8 Refrain
from anger, and forsake wrath!
Fret
not yourself; it tends only to evil.
Two
times, the psalmist uses the word ‘fret’. We should not be agitated or disturbed
by the prosperity of the wicked. Our responsibility is to be still and wait
patiently for God to act, and not to become angry.
Anger always exposes our prideful self-centeredness. We are rebelling against God’s
sovereignty, believing that we deserve something better than what we have.
Anger against events or people is a
sign of impatience and dissatisfaction. As we deal with situations in our
lives and the people that surround us, we often come to a fork in the road:
trust God or fight. The first road will lead us in a path of rest and
dependence that pleases God, but the second one will lead us to sin.
We
must resolve today to truly trust God and be willing to wait on His will and
timing. Our reactions and attitudes will expose whether our hearts are in a
state of contentment, or dissatisfaction.
God
is so good to give us this psalm to guide our thoughts today, as we go out into
a world where the wicked seem to prosper. We will see, as the psalm progresses,
that this is only temporary.
Let’s
keep eternal values and goals in mind today!
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