- araratchurch
- Jun 14, 2022
- 3 min read
“Bless the Lord, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, Who satisfies your mouth with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”
Psalms 103:1-5 NKJV
Most of us have been there.
You’re working on your computer, all of a sudden a message comes up telling you that there’s a program in the background that’s slowing your computer down, asking whether or not you want to close it. (I won’t even start into talking about when music is playing and you have no idea how it got there or how to turn it off!) So, I was thinking, it would be handy if we had such a warning in our own minds. You know, sometimes you feel something is wrong, maybe you’re agitated or have “free floating” anxiety, and you don’t know what’s causing it. But, chances are, there is some line of thinking going on in the “back” of your mind, causing the angst.
Truth be told, we do have a warning “system” for the times we don’t feel quite right, without knowing why. Now—for me and basically for any Christian—that warning prompt comes by way of the Holy Spirit. The problem is, we often don’t heed the warning and wind up in a full blown funk.
The troublesome background “programs” running in our hearts and minds that produce nebulous dis-ease, are generally associated with unforgiveness, hurt, anger, fear or discouragement—or a combination of these culprits.
Threats from the enemy of your soul that something bad is going to happen can provoke fear. Experiences of having been done wrong can keep unforgiveness and/or hurt constantly “refreshing” in our inner person. Basically, unfinished business of any sort can become background programs, corrupting all areas of our lives. Sadly, left uninterrupted, the end result of unsanctified thinking is loss of peace and the creation of a wedge between us and our Savior.
In our portion from Psalms today we see David basically commanding his own soul to bless the Lord and to do so within the context of remembering all the wonderful things the Lord has done, is doing, and will do for us. We repeatedly see that no matter what David was going through, he was always careful to meet his situation head on with praise to the Lord in his mouth.
“I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make its boast in the Lord; The humble shall hear of it and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me, And let us exalt His name together. I sought the Lord, and He heard me, And delivered me from all my fears.”
Psalms 34:1-4 NKJV
Now, make no mistake, stinking thinking will not motivate you toward blessing the Lord and extolling His goodness. But remember, you must “captivate” those background thoughts that stand in opposition to the word of God. Left unchecked, those programs will lead you further away from peace and closer to the brink of despair.
For today let us know and understand what David knew:
Commanding your soul to bless the Lord helps shut down contaminated thought processes.
- araratchurch
- Jun 14, 2022
- 3 min read
“Whoever secretly slanders his neighbor, Him I will destroy; The one who has a haughty look and a proud heart, Him I will not endure. My eyes shall be on the faithful of the land, That they may dwell with me; He who walks in a perfect way, He shall serve me. He who works deceit shall not dwell within my house; He who tells lies shall not continue in my presence.”
Psalms 101:5-7 NKJV
Aesop said, “A man is known by the company he keeps.” Aesop was right. Think about it, have you ever known somebody you thought you knew fairly well, but upon meeting some of their friends, you began to wonder if that was so? In other words, their friends, the ones with whom they spent recreational time, seemed to be inconsistent with what you thought the person was about. Well, I will say something that may shock you: don’t discount what kind of friends a person chooses; it can be a window into their private world.
Now, I understand that we sometimes see what we call an “odd couple,” in terms of people who become good friends. But generally, there will be a strong commonality that is not as apparent as their “surface” differences. I have known people who liked to hang around rough or tough people because of their own insecurities. In other words, they wanted to be counted among the “rough-riders,” even though to be such, was inconsistent with other areas of life, and more importantly, inconsistent with the word of God.
Now, I’m not going to take time to digress into explaining how we’re not talking about becoming an island unto yourself, never associating with anybody in the world. We all know that’s not what I’m talking about. What I am talking about is the people with whom we closely associate. Folks like to conflate choosing Godly associates with being judgmental and not witnessing to sinners or helping those in need. They conflate those two totally different situations to defend the fact that they hang out with sinners and participate in their sins (I digressed, after all).
The proverbial writer had a lot to say about bad company. Here are a couple of good examples:
“He who walks with wise men will be wise, But the companion of fools will be destroyed.”
Proverbs 13:20 NKJV
“Make no friendship with an angry man, And with a furious man do not go, Lest you learn his ways And set a snare for your soul.”
Proverbs 22:24-25 NKJV
For the Christian, I think the best known example of advice concerning those with whom we should/shouldn’t associate, comes from the Apostle Paul:
“Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell in them And walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people.” Therefore “Come out from among them And be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you.””
II Corinthians 6:14-17 NKJV
In our portion from Psalms today we see David vowing to the Lord that he will only choose righteous people to be his associates, even to be those who serve him. Now, David wasn’t doing this in an attitude of how much better he was than everybody else; although it can come across sounding that way to a cynical ear. What he was doing, was aligning himself with God’s desires. Consider this statement David made in another place:
“For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness, Nor shall evil dwell with You.
Psalms 5:4 NKJV
David wanted to please the Lord. He knew that part of pleasing the Lord, is walking righteously in ALL areas of our lives, whether out in the public arena or in the privacy of our own homes.
Please understand, with whomever you closely associate for long periods of time, you will find yourself aligning with them in more ways than one. Let’s make sure that our associations reflect godliness so that we can grow thereby.
“As iron sharpens iron, So one man sharpens [and influences] another.”
Proverbs 27:17 AMP
For today let us know and understand what David knew:
The company you keep matters.
- araratchurch
- Jun 12, 2022
- 3 min read
Updated: Jun 13, 2022
“For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture, And the sheep of His hand. Today, if you will hear His voice: “Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, As in the day of trial in the wilderness, When your fathers tested Me; They tried Me, though they saw My work. For forty years I was grieved with that generation, And said, ‘It is a people who go astray in their hearts, And they do not know My ways.’ So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ””
Psalms 95:7-11 NKJV
Have you ever heard the phrase,” “to be bent on” doing something? Even if you haven’t heard the phrase, I imagine we have all interacted with people who are bent on doing something. Perhaps, sometimes, we are those people.
To be bent on doing something means that the person has determined what they will do and are not likely to be dissuaded. Additionally, I have heard observed an odd phenomenon among human beings: once a person is bent on doing something, or bent on thinking a particular way about something, they will selectively perceive all future information to further confirm the “bent.” In other words, if you have decided to do something, and you hear negativities about it, you are not likely to give that contrary information credence. On the other hand, information affirming the “bent” is given great weight and used as further proof or support for what has been decided
People who have allowed walls to be built up around their opinions, have basically been self-exiled to an echo chamber. In other words, all they hear is what they want to hear; all they will know is what they want to know.
Now, as bad as having a closed mind or heart is in the general practice of life, having a closed mind—or in biblical terms, a hardened heart—against the things of God, can be disastrous to your eternal soul.
“Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.”
Ephesians 4:17-18 ESV
In the above passage the apostle Paul speaks of people being alienated from God because of the condition of their hearts and minds. As a matter of fact, we see the Lord speaking of the hardness of His people’s hearts, all the way through the Bible. Jesus spoke of the hardness of people’s hearts when they failed to believe or when they couldn’t understand what He was saying.
In our portion from Psalms today we see the Lord speaking through David, warning the people not to harden their hearts as those who were in the wilderness had hardened their hearts, perishing because of it. Interestingly, this passage is quoted three times in the book of Hebrews! It’s a very serious thing to allow your heart to be hardened when the Lord brings correction or when things don’t go the way you want them to go. If we allow our hearts to stay hardened, we have no hope of being able to enter into the rest of the Lord. Let’s ask the Lord to search us and help us to know areas where we have closed ourself off from His voice.
Through Jesus Christ, we have rest from the labor of our trying to earn our own salvation. But, there is yet a greater rest to be entered. God forbid that we should allow hardness of heart—or anything else—keep us from following His voice all the way home.
For today let us know and understand what David knew:
A hardened heart will never enter into God’s rest.