I have chosen the way of faithfulness

Psalms 119:30  I have chosen the way of faithfulness; I set your rules before me.

Joshua 24:15     And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”

Proverbs 1:29   Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the LORD,

Luke 10:42    but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

John 3:19-21     And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.  For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.  But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

John 8:45     But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me.

1 Peter 2:2     Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation

Deuteronomy 11:18-20     “You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.  You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.  You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,

If we are to be kept from sin, it must be by the grace of God exercised through the teaching of his Word.” (Boice)

Men do not drop into the right way by chance; they must choose it, and continue to choose it, or they will soon wander from it.” (Spurgeon)

The fact that  we have free will in “Choosing” our thoughts, actions, and what we say, means we have more than one path in life to pick from.   “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter.” The wide gate and broad road are all decisions we make.  These choices are decided upon what is influencing our heart, mind, and soul.

Our sinful nature has many “non-God serving, honoring, following, and obeying thoughts and actions to pick from – “Wide Gate” “Broad Road“.  Paul says to take every thought captive.  Our sinful nature has a way of throwing some very non God like thoughts into our head.  Being able to discern that it is not God honoring and taking it captive means we have something to compare the thought against.  “God’s word”.

We are not going to stop all of these thoughts from popping up, but what we do with them we can.  Why does God tell us to “You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.  You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.  You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,“?  So we can recognize these non-God honoring, serving, following, and obeying thoughts captive in and through His word.

Pride, hate, selfishness, lust, greed, self-reliance, anxiousness, worry, all have ways of manifesting themselves in reactionary thought.  Having God’s word in our heart, mind and soul – meditating on it in the morning and evening, teaching it through out the day to our children, giving thought to it with the purpose of honoring God at all times will reduce the non-God honoring thoughts and keep our heart, mind and soul from choosing to walk through the wide gate and broad road.

Pleading to listen

“Hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes, but see not, who have ears, but hear not.”

“Give ear, O house of the king! For the judgment is for you;”

Joe 1:2
Hear this, you elders; give ear, all inhabitants of the land! Has such a thing happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers?

Hosea 5:1
Hear this, O priests! Pay attention, O house of Israel! Give ear, O house of the king! For the judgment is for you;

Psa 49:1
Hear this, all peoples! Give ear, all inhabitants of the world,

Jeremiah 5:21
“Hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes, but see not, who have ears, but hear not.

Amos 3:1
Hear this word that the LORD has spoken against you, O people of Israel, against the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt:

Micah 3:1
Hear, you peoples, all of you; pay attention, O earth, and all that is in it, and let the Lord GOD be a witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple.

Matthew 13:9
“He who has ears, let him hear.

Revelation 2:7
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’

I wonder how many times we have to be told to listen to what the Lord is saying to us.  God wants to give us peace, rest, hope, love, guidance, and assurance yet we choose to keep Him at arms length until something comes into our lives that upsets it.  Can you imagine looking at this from outside and seeing the Creator of all there is reaching out to His creation and telling them how much He loves them and what He expects from them, and how these people reject His love and guidance – what would you think of people who have rejected and neglected their creator?  Do we think for a minute we will not be held accountable for the rejection and neglect?  Every day we have a choice to learn more of Him or to neglect Him.  We come up with multiple reasons and excuses of why we don’t have time.  The bar of what it means to humbly serve, honor and glorify God in our lives needs to be raised higher.