In contrast, we see King David, a known adulterer, liar, and murder be called a man after God's own heart. He was nothing like Job in the "perfect" sense. However, both men loved God. Both men knew more about themselves after their struggles too!
Near the end of Job's testing, we see that Job says he knew of God but now He really knows him. Job was a man who knew how to dot every "I" and cross every "T", but in the struggle, he received a deeper understanding of who God really was.
Throughout David's life, we read the Psalms and see that there are times when he is doing well and following the known godly principles and times when he has made bad choices. He struggles with his thoughts and sometimes when he acts on his thoughts, he sins. Like Job, he has a deep love towards God and desires to follow God with all of his heart, mind, soul, and strength; however, sometimes the flesh got in the way. The Bible tells us that the flesh is willing but the spirit is weak.
We stay strong in the Lord by putting on the armor of God every day and walking with God throughout the day making hymns, songs, and melodies in our heart to the Lord. The Bible tells us that if we draw near to God he will draw near to us.
We also have to learn to do good. But let's start to walk with God more proactively and less on the defense. Let's start taking the principles of God and walking in them before trouble comes.
David writes about the word being a light to his feet. He asked God to show him God's ways. The Bible also tells us to take every thought into captivity. And since God has given us choice, a response to our choices shows our growth and love towards God. Isaiah 55 tells us that God's ways and thoughts are not our ways; therefore, we must be in God's word and taking what our thoughts are telling us to do and line them up to the word of God. And the more we study the Bible and know the word, the more than our thoughts will be like God's thoughts because we need the mind and heart of God in hours.
God is looking for the more mature spiritually minded person who loves him and will follow after him with all of his heart. Both Job and David loved God in this manner. We are most obviously like David, and it is good to know that we can still receive the promises of God when we keep our heart pure and clean before the Lord. When we set it in our heart and mind that we will do things right by putting on the spirit of truth and God's righteousness and do things God's ways, we can know that we are on the right track to being strong in the Lord and not leaving an open door for the enemy.
The devil has no power over us unless we give him room. When we decide to do things our way by lying and being deceptive, we are leaving an open door for the enemy to work. There are no shortcuts and we cannot justify our actions based on what we think, if it does not line up to the word of God. Likewise when we harbor feelings of unforgiveness and allow a root of bitterness to spring up, we are leaving an open door for the enemy to work in our lives.
There are consequences when one lies and there are consequences when one harbors bitterness towards person. There are negative consequences when we are unforgiveness towards ourselves too! And often the effects are negative to us causing us the pain, shame, and guilt. Though the word tells us that nothing can separate us from the love of God, when we begin to take matters into our own hands and we sin, we feel ashamed and begin to back/off of approaching God because of our actions. When all along, God is waiting there for us to deal with our hearts, the struggle that we have on the inside, and come near to God.
David asked the Lord to create a clean heart in him. He knew about the struggle that was going on in the inside of him. Folks, we are all struggling with something that God is dealing with us and trying to teach us. We will keep facing this struggle until we deal with it. This is part of the growth and wilderness process
The Bible tells us that God desires truth on the inward parts and that there is no secret that is from him. So when we take matters into our own hands and think that we are fooling God, we are not. We should care more about what God thinks of us and not what people think of us. It's easy to full people, but we can't for God. We also need to understand that God wants the best for us and that is why he is put his principles out there for us to learn and live with! He doesn't want us to have negative consequences in our lives. He wants to see us walking and freedom, happiness, and blessings!
When we take matters into our own hands, what we are really doing is harming ourselves and this includes little lies. In fact, we are making our own gospel when we mixup what we think is right and is not right with parts of the truth. And this is wrong!
The truth is is that God wants us to do things right because the right way is a way of protection and blessing. The word tells us that there is a way that seems right onto man, but the end thereof is death.
So the last time I checked in the word that never changes, it's still a good thing to walk pure, free, and in love with God and people. And truly folks, that is the key, to line up everything that you want to do to the word of God. It's the best form of checks and balances that I know!
What are your thoughts?
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