It has been an unreasonably long time since my last writing. For that I give all of you my humblest apology. All I will say is that the past few weeks have been a testimony to the importance of staying faithful in the Word and prayer, and how easily we can fall into the snares of the enemy when we lose sight of the power and presence of God. I thank God that He still loves me enough, even in all of my failings and compromises, to chasten me back into the vine, and back into a life of fruitfulness!
That being said, I want to share with all of you this passage of Scripture that has truly gripped my heart. Psalms 19:7-9 is a portion of a song about the glory and awesomeness of God. It says:
The law of the LORD is perfect,
reviving the soul.
The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy,
making wise the simple.
The precepts of the LORD are right,
giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the LORD are radiant,
giving light to the eyes.
The fear of the LORD is pure,
enduring forever.
The ordinances of the LORD are sure
and altogether righteous.
As sons and daughters of Adam, we are fountains of sin, spewing out hordes of selfishness, pride, lust, bitterness, and every kind of evil we can muster. When we choose to trust in ourselves, we are investing in wickedness. All these things will fail us, ruin us, condemn us, and betray us. We Christians are all exactly like Paul, who says in Romans 7, "When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?!"
We constantly try to please God with our talents, our time, our treasure, and our testimony, and then we find ourselves in blatant sin and rebellion to God. We preach the gospel in the streets and find ourselves not living it in our homes! There is a literal war between the spirit and the flesh within us; if you choose to follow your own desires, it isn't a hard battle, but if you follow Christ, it is the toughest enemy you'll ever face. So how do we triumph in these trials? How do we find hope in this persecution? As Paul says, "Who can deliver me from this body of death?" He answers that question in the very next verse, "Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!"
Jesus is the answer! When we follow Him, we can be sure that not only will Satan come at us with full force, but the world, and our own flesh will war against us! However, we can be confident that if we hold fast to Him, stay faithful in His Word and in prayer, and continually turn away from sinful desires, He will never forsake us. Then our hopelessness turns to hope, our defeat turns to triumph, and our persecutions turn into rejoicing! It is so important, however, that we keep our focus on Christ alone. As I said earlier, when we choose to trust in ourselves, we are investing in wickedness, and are doomed to fail. The same goes for anything on earth, and there is but one thing we can turn to to find wisdom, contentment, enlightenment, and purity: God's Word! Now re-read Psalms 19:7-9 and feel His power through those verses!
When we put our trust on something, we make it a focal point in our life, or as one preacher has called it, a citadel. There are many citadels we put up, things that we turn to to fulfill our desires. What are the citadels in your life? Some of us focus on music, art, clothes, church, our social lives, our morality, etc. If you are a Christian, whatever focal points you have set up in your life should be destroyed. I'm not saying that music, art, clothes, church, etc. are bad things, but if you are making Christ the focal point of your life, He is the ONLY focal point. Peter elaborates on this in his first epistle:
"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. " (1 Peter 1:3-7)
Do you understand now? This war you're fighting as a Christian, this war against the flesh, against Satan, is all worthless if you invest even a fraction of your soul to things outside of Christ. All those things, at the end of this age, will perish. There is only one thing that will not perish: Jesus Christ, the Word of God made flesh! Because of Him, your sufferings will not have been in vain! Praise God that He has freely given the gift of grace!
In closing, I want to ask all of you to examine yourselves. What are your focal points in life? What do you love to do, to watch, to listen to? If they are not in Christ, then they are chains binding you to this world, and keeping you from experiencing the liberty of grace. Don't take my word for it, take His word. Open up the Scriptures tonight and ask God, "What am I trusting in that isn't You?" These steps are the hardest to take in the Christian life, because it means actually taking things you love and throwing them away; But if you don't love the things God loves, you can do no worse for yourself in the battle for your soul.
I hope that these reflections of mine for the past week have touched your hearts in a way that glorifies Him, and I will pray that we all can "Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness."(Matt. 6:33)
Thank you,
Levi Gray
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