“They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them.”
Psalms 18:22
For all his rules were before me, and his statutes I did not put away from me. I was blameless before him, and I kept myself from my guilt. So the LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight. With the merciful you show yourself merciful; with the blameless man you show yourself blameless; with the purified you show yourself pure; and with the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous. For you save a humble people, but the haughty eyes you bring down. For it is you who light my lamp; the LORD my God lightens my darkness.
Psalms 119:13
With my lips I declare all the rules of your mouth.
Psalms 119:128
Therefore I consider all your precepts to be right; I hate every false way.
John 5:14
Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.”
Psalms 119:112
I incline my heart to perform your statutes forever, to the end.
Psalms 119:117
Hold me up, that I may be safe and have regard for your statutes continually!
Psalms 11:7
For the LORD is righteous; he loves righteous deeds; the upright shall behold his face.
Psalms 17:3
You have tried my heart, you have visited me by night, you have tested me, and you will find nothing; I have purposed that my mouth will not transgress
Psalms 37:27
Turn away from evil and do good; so shall you dwell forever.
1 Samuel 26:23
The LORD rewards every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness,
1 Chronicles 29:17
I know, my God, that you test the heart and have pleasure in uprightness.
God saves the humble. When I read this I think of the time I was humbled through His word. I had people speaking Christ into my life and sharing His word with me for over a year. Through these acts of discipleship God’s word became alive. I became aware of what God required to be right with Him. I learned that I could not be good enough to gain His forgiveness. Then one night God opened my heart and mind to His forgiveness through believing in the redemptive work of His son. I was humbled and knew there was nothing I could do to be right with God and had to trust His word that by believing in His son I was saved from my sin. I was made new. All my past sin was forgiven. All the guilt and shame was taken away in that single moment. I dug into His word, learning, training, wanting to know more and more of Him. I would like to say that I grew and grew and never lost sight of honoring and glorifying Him in my daily life. However, after some years I became a very luke warm follower of Him. Playing the role without much of His word being active in my life. I was very good at pretending but the fact of the matter was I was not growing at all. I had stopped reading His word on a regular basis. I became complacent. I was not listening for His voice leading me. I was going through life with no thought of humbly honoring and glorifying God everyday. It was more about me and what I wanted. Things of this world seemed to have grabbed my attention and I lost sight but God did not leave me there. Through His great plans and purpose He humbled me and then used my wife to place scripture back in front of me. She would place His word on my computer screen. He used her because she was listening and obeying when she could have easily followed my lead. I tell you all of this so you know that following God is not a one day a week. If you find yourself where God does not seem to be very near it is not because He is not there. It is because His word is not active in your life. Go back to that first desire. Read His word. Commit to being His humble servant ready to listen and obey His leading. Don’t waste a single day apart from Him.