How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
Nor stand in the path of sinners
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
But his delight is in the law of the Lord
And in His law he meditates day and night
And he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water
Which yields its fruit in season
And its leaf does not wither
And in whatever he does he prospers
Psalm 1:1-3
We all want to like the man in Psalm 1, to blessed and bear fruit so that we may please God. We try to meditate on His word and live right, avoiding the pitfalls outlined in the first verse.
We know we must not walk acting on the advice of wicked people
We know we must not stand in agreement with sinners, accepting the things they do without speaking out.
We know we must not sit, taking our place with scoffers who do not believe in or trust in God, but doubt and mock.
The negatives are much easier to avoid by taking positive action to counteract them rather than being defensive.
We can be on the offensive by following the outline in the letter to the Ephesians.
We sit in our rightful place…
..and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus
Eph 2:6
Until we are secure in who we are in Christ we will be swayed by the approval of man and be trapped in the snare of people pleasing. It has been said the some people are “so heavenly minded that they are of no earthly use”, but the truth is that unless we are heavenly minded we are no use to earth or heaven. When we see things from a heavenly perspective we are able to lead others into the truth without being intimidated by the same fears as the ones we are trying to help. We are able to step out boldly when we are secure in our position as sons and daughters of the king, rather than grovelling sinners trying to become worthy. God Himself has seated us in heavenly places, Jesus died to make it possible and we should accept what He paid such a high price to give us.
We walk in the right way..
.. entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one another in love.
Eph 4:1-2
To walk out our calling we must realise that God has a plan for us and has chosen us to fulfil His purposes in our generation on the earth. We may be like little children trying to help daddy, but how our daddy longs to share His heart and His work with us. When we take His yoke we are not really taking the strain; He is doing the work but we are privileged to walk beside Him.
Jesus teaches us the right way to walk throughout the gospels as He teaches His disciples. He said it could all be summed up in two things; love God and love one another. We must walk keeping our eyes on Jesus so that we grow more like Him and stay on the right path.
We stand immovable for what is right
Put on the full armour of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil…
..and having done everything, to stand firm..
Stand firm, therefore,..
Eph 6:11, 13, 14
In order to stand for what is right we must protect ourselves with the armour God has provided for us. We may be tempted to follow the advice of successful businessmen, or even successful Christian workers, attending their seminars and reading their books. This may be of some help to us, but without godly wisdom we are merely following men. David would not go into battle against Goliath wearing Saul’s armour and neither should we. We must put on heavenly armour to do spiritual warfare, because we are not fighting against men.
We are not competing against men or trying to keep up with other Christians. We each have our own race to run, our own battles to face and God’s plan for us may differ to that of others. It is good to learn from their experiences and rejoice when we hear their testimony, but to succeed we must be follow God’s plan for our situation. We may not march around with a multitude like Joshua, fight with a few chosen men like Gideon, or confront followers of false gods like Elijah.
Jesus seemed to deal with every situation differently. Maybe it was so we wouldn’t mix mud to heal the blind or wait for three days to raise the dead.
Let us not follow men, good or bad, but remember where we are seated; walk in love, fixing our eyes on Jesus; and take our stand wearing the armour He has provided for us. Then we will surely be blessed, firmly planted and bear much fruit.
