Walking blamelessly

Living a blameless life before God is not considered as an important aspect even among many Christians. But a true child of God know that living blamelessly is not an option. Let us take a day to consider how to live a life blameless before God. We have a quick answer in God's Word.

Psalm 11:109, 112 (NIV)

109. My life is continually in my hand,

Yet I do not forget Your law.

112.I have inclined my heart to perform Your statutes

Forever, even to the end.

It is true that we have our life in our hands. The decisions we make, the priorities we establish, our likes and dislikes, our choices and the way we handle our life is in our hands. However, we need to notice that the Psalmist says that he inclined his heart to God's statutes meaning to shape his life as per the God's Word. He also made a determination to stick to it till the end. The choice was his...

If we could only shape our life's choices, decisions, priorities, likes, perceptions and attitude as per God's Word, then our life would sure to be blameless in His sight.

Rewards for following Him...

Who would not wish to have good things in life... respect, recognition and rewards for the work we do? Of course each of us would love to. This can all be ours when we follow the Lord wholeheartedly. Following the Lord whole heartedly calls to live a blameless life before Him:-

Doing the things which He would approve of.

Being the person He would be pleased with.

And speaking (plus behaving and thinking) in the way which is right in His sight.

Trusting and living in dependency of God is the one-side of the coin whereas living blamelessly is the other side. And like a coin that has two sides, these traits without doubt would mark the character of every child of God. And the reward is awesome...

Psalm 84:11 (New International Version)

For the LORD God is a sun and shield;

the LORD bestows favor and honor;

no good thing does he withhold

from those whose walk is blameless.

Being Revived

In the midst of multitudes,

With joys of reunion and times of happiness,

I was so busy that I didn't make time for you Lord.

My soul missed something,

I knew it was your presence,

Yet I compromised it for others.

My heart felt it was not right thing to do,

But my mind said, I can defer a little,

Yet my soul was slowly dying.

With days passing, I didn't really feel the prompting,

My heart had settled with complacency,

My mind said it was okay.

One fine day I bumped into an unusual trouble,

And realized that I had left the door open,

For the devil to come in.

The presence of the Lord had left,

And the thief had quietly sneaked in,

Alas I realized my folly.

I repented and went back to God,

For taking His grace and presence for granted,

And I cried my heart out.

Suddenly I felt His compassion and presence,

Readily accepting me in His arm,

Where at once I was revived.

Oh! for His goodness and grace,

How could people or pleasures fill His place?

None can fulfill which His sweet presence can give.

It is in Him, we can stand secure,

And our heart can be satisfied with gladness,

In Him alone.

Oh! that you would revive me again,

And keep me in you forever,

Not to falter from your presence or leave behind your grace.

Psalm 119:88 (New American Standard Bible)

Revive me according to Your lovingkindness,

So that I may keep the testimony of Your mouth.

Daily walk

The distractions of this world are many,

Always making us loose focus on the Master.

Sometimes, it is work, sometimes challenges,

Many a time it is a trial or pressures of life.

All these look like mountains,

Where drifting our sight becomes easy.

Let us learn to share everything with Him,

Knowing He is at work.

Not becoming discouraged,

For He is in control.

And he knows when to give or intervene,

Ours is just to believe.

Be it good tidings or trying times,

Let us not loose track.

But run with perseverance,

the race marked for us.

With our gaze fixed on Jesus,

The author and finisher of faith.

Hebrews 12:2 (New International Version)

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith...

When faith jeopardizes...

Why is that sometimes our faith goes in for a jeopardy? Because that is where exactly it calls for exercising of our faith...Faith doesn't really comes into picture when the sky is blue, when things are going fine in our life. It is so easy at that time to claim God's promises with joy and proclaim it to others. Faith comes picture when the sky is dark, when situations in life are exactly contrary to what we expect.

The people of Israel faced same kind of scenarios when they were led out of Egypt. They presumed that their life and journey would be without hazels. But soon they found themselves at challenging situations. They arrived at places where the water was bitter or was no water (Ex 15:22,23, 17:1). The Israelites grumbled in those circumstances.

So it is with us, when we face unexpected challenges in life, our faith goes into a jeopardy. And we at times react like the Israelites. If we wonder why God allows such situations in our life which challenges our faith, we will realize that it is to help us grow. To grow in faith and maturity so that we will no longer think or behave like children, but grow in the wholeness of our being. To help us learn to trust Him and His dealings in our life, where we will display maturity and balance by the way we react to the Lord.

1 Corinthians 13:11 (New International Version)

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.

Like Apostle Paul says, our real growth in the Lord can be seen (or realized) in the way we think of God, react to God and trust His dealings in our life.