I was reading through Psalm 50 today, and the last part of it struck me.
“What right have you to recite my laws
or take my covenant on your lips?
17 You hate my instruction
and cast my words behind you.
18 When you see a thief, you join with him;
you throw in your lot with adulterers.
19 You use your mouth for evil
and harness your tongue to deceit.
20 You sit and testify against your brother
and slander your own mother’s son.
21 When you did these things and I kept silent,
you thought I was exactly like you.
But I now arraign you
and set my accusations before you.
22 “Consider this, you who forget God,
or I will tear you to pieces, with no one to rescue you:
23 Those who sacrifice thank offerings honor me,
and to the blamelessI will show my salvation.”
Many times we do things, thinking that by it we are pleasing God. But really, what He desires, we do not do. If you ask me whether I want to know God, I’d raptly reply yes. Yet with hundreds of books I’ve read, the words of God was the one book I started and not finished. Tens of thousands of pages I’ve read, yet not couple hundred pages of the Bible. Sure I delight in His instruction. I delight in the superiority of the moral standard it entails. Yet I do not feel compel to ingrain it in my life. Yes through Christ we have salvation. But to be born again entails death to the old and birthing of the new. Even then I hold on to the past, I have things that I cannot let go. Dark places in the heart that I wish not it be seen. We can keep on waiting and waiting, asking God to change us, yet we move not. We do a lot of things in church, thinking that it pleases God. And when He is silent, we take it for approval. And overtime, we made God in our image. If we feel He is distant, it is because we are distant. We can wait and wait, and keep asking for God to change us. But if we don’t do our part, He cannot do His. For in surrendering, we are not asking to become puppets, but our will becomes a sail, gently guided by His breath. When the songs we sing, become the meditation of our hearts. When the vows we make, becomes a reality. When the words we say, become genuine praises of thanksgiving. We will have been different. Reaching on to perfection. Full of righteousness and truth. The road is hard, and the path is tough. For we wage war against ourselves, against everything we’ve ever known, everything we’ve ever been accustomed to. But we are not alone. If God is with us, who can be against us. So I continue to press on. I stumble. I fall. I stand up again. I will not stop until I run to the finish line. And there to see Him face to face and there to hear Him say, well done.
