Psalm 101, "I will sing of your love and justice, Lord. I will praise you with songs. I will be careful to live a blameless life- when will you come to help me? I will lead a life of integrity in my own home. I will refuse to look at anything vile and vulgar. I hate all who deal crookedly; I will have nothing to do with them. I will reject perverse ideas and stay away from every evil. I will not tolerate people who slander their neighbors. I will not endure conceit and pride. I will search for faithful people to be my companions."
I am in Psalms, in my personal reading time. As I read the different writings, there are so many lessons to be learned through others lives. I can apply so much to my life at most any stage of my life. We have been given a guide to help us on our journey, so that we never feel alone. "These history songs were written for passing on important lessons to succeeding generations... With these we can reflect on how consistently God's people failed to learn from the past. They repeatedly turned from fresh examples of God's faithfulness and forgiveness only to plunge back into sin. How often we have every reason to live for God, we choose instead to live for everything but God. If we paid more attention to 'His story,' we wouldn't make so many mistakes in our own stories."
When do I fail? When do I do the things that I shouldn't? When I think, 'I can get away with it.' So many of us are caught up in a snare that keeps us held back. Women with their romance novels. Men with pornography. Why do we think we can get away with reading or watching something that we would be embarrassed if someone saw what was going through our minds. It is these moments of weakness that keep us trapped in our sin. These moments when we wish we could erase what we allowed in, because they always come and haunt us later. We cannot escape it. For men, you get caught in the dark world of pornography, until you cannot ever be fully satisfied with your own wife. For women, the lure of Hollywood or romance novels, creates a world that your husband can never compete with. We can only blame ourselves for the lack of intimacy in our relationships.
Read the Psalm again, "I will lead a life of integrity in my own home. I will refuse to look at anything vile and vulgar." When we refuse to obey the laws of God, and we insist on doing things our own way, we pay a heavy price. We think we are getting away with it. We think it is okay, but our conscience, knows the difference. So we choose to live in slavery, rather than freedom. I have picked on the lure of sexual temptation, but this goes in every area of our lives. If we eat what we know we are not supposed to eat; if we say something about someone that we hope they never hear; if we... ; fill in the blank. What have you been doing that haunts you, but you seem to not be able to control? If we will keep our minds on 'His story' then we will not have to live in torment for the rest of our lives. What have you not turned over to Him, so that you can be free... What lesson from your history, or others, are you not learning? If you keep struggling with the same mistakes, then take a look at reality and turn to 'His story.'
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