The Devotional - 1510 - Developing Faith

The Devotional – 1510 – Developing Faith

Psalm 119:65-72 – You have dealt well with Your servant, O Lord, according to Your word. Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I believe Your commandments. Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Your word. You are good, and do good; teach me Your statutes. The proud have forged a lie against me, but I will keep Your precepts with my whole heart. Their heart is as fat as grease, but I delight in Your law. It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes. The law of Your mouth is better to me than thousands of coins of gold and silver. 

Comments and Challenges: TETH

1.       65 – Do good to Your servant, according to Your WORD, YAHWEH

2.       66 – Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I believe in Your COMMANDMENTS

3.       67 – Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I believe Your WORD

4.       68 – you are good, and do good; teach me Your STATUTES

5.       69 – The proud have smeared a lie upon me. With my whole heart I will keep Your PRECEPTS

6.       70 –Their heart is as callous as fat, but I delight in Your LAW

7.       71 – It is good for me to have been afflicted, that I may learn Your STATUTES

8.       72 – The LAW of Your mouth is better to me than thousands of pieces of gold and silver.

I have a question: How easy is it to sound “phony”? I mean with all of the intellectual mindsets around you and me today it is “very easy” to have the people around us think that way; we who claim to be servants of God can only make that claim REAL to the unbelieving by FAITH in Who we believe in. I think the scripture that comes to mind is 1 John 2:6 in that many of the “saints” of God these days like to say that they are saved and have “justifying faith” but we fail to walk, just as He (JESUS) walked. By the way Jesus walked in perfect (mature) FAITH.

The exercise of FAITH for the Saints of God is a process of being made perfect (mature), so we are daily being sanctified by various trials. The apostle and half-brother of Jesus in his epistle to the twelve tribes of Judah (Israel) had this to say about the will of God for each of us. Please take the moment and read James 1:2-8 as I wish to comment on the conversation in these verses in that God provides “trials” for His Saints in order that we might profit or gain spiritual wisdom, which is God’s training program to live and mature in FAITH. 

The exercise of maturing faith is found throughout Psalm 119; our earthly walk should always be to seek for GOD to do GOOD for us as His WORD promises to do just that. But, should we expect that the goodness of God is favorable if we are not seeking to be responsible or mature? Of course not, so I believe that what God has designed for every TRIAL to have a maturing outcome, can become a TEMPTATION or tool used by those of us to go astray when the trial is ignored. This is why the psalmist can say: “before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I believe Your WORD.

God has COMMANDMENTS designed to teach us WISDOM and KNOWLEDGE; now go ahead and say it. “Dang;  Jesse I know that, tell me something I don’t know!” Well, “Sorry I can’t do that!” but I can say this… We know His COMMANDMENTS and we know that His commandments are not burdensome. Yet we do not go any further with God on this, in other words we fail to allow Him to TEACH us the wisdom and knowledge designed by HIM to reach maturity. Just knowing is good enough for most of us, but we must do better; we must be willing to walk in obedience too. Yesterday we looked at 1 John 5:1-5 and we should look again, but this time in the light of 1 John 4:20-21.

Victory in trials is when I love my brother or sister in Christ who is just as “unlovable as I am”. Psalm 119:70 is an interesting verse in that God identifies the hardness of soul by revealing the emotions of those who reject GODLY WISDOM and KNOWLEDGE. Have you ever cut into piece of uncooked beef with a thick layer of fat? I am sure that if you have you have noticed how easy it is to slice through the meat and how difficult it is to get through the FAT. Fat is always callous and hard so many times we find our way around the fat and toss it in the trash. 

For the Servant of God who allows God to trim the fat we find DELIGHT in the LAW of God while we mature in Christ, we learn to LOVE those who are callous. God uses our understanding of His PRECEPTS and STATUTES as instruments of PURPOSE so that we can say with CONFIDENCE it is good to have been AFFLICTED we must learn that all of God’s DESIGN and PURPOSE is to bring JOY to our soul and to realize that His WORD, LAW, COMMANDMENTS, PRECEPTS, STATUTES and PROMISES are better THAN thousands of gold and silver that perish. Why? Matthew 24:32-35.