"Incline my heart to thy testimonies, and not to covetousness. 37. Turn away mine
eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken me in thy way. 38. Stablish thy word unto thy servant, who is devoted to thy fear.” These three verses captured my attention this morning in my Bible reading time. What they said to me was that the Psalmist deeply desired a life of substance. He did not want his life to be shallow and vain. First, he wanted his life to be built on the decrees, testimonies, or word of God. He did not want his life to be based on material gain, which comes from a covetous heart. Man, could we use this advice today. I know that this is nothing new, but people seem to think that if they could somehow get a lot of money their lives would be trouble-free. All we have to do is look at people who have a lot of money. If that is all they have, they are not as happy as we might think, and their lives are not as fulfilling as we might think. I’m certainly not against having money and things. I am just against making those the purpose for our lives. St. Francis of Assisi is a good example. He was from a wealthy family, but discovered that his happiness could not be tied to wealth. He gave up everything and lived a life of poverty. We would have never heard of St. Francis if he had not given up his wealth. He found happiness in Christ and in serving Him. Second, he did not want to go through life looking at vain things, things that have no eternal meaning. Most of the things that people really care about today do not amount to a hill of beans in comparison to eternity. The HCSB translates it this way: "Turn my eyes from looking at what is worthless; give me life in your ways.” Think of how many worthless things we look at today. We can't live lives of substance if we spend our time observing what is worthless. What we need is to live the way God wills for us to live. I really can’t think of a prized possession that I own today that I could not do without. If you will give some thought to it, you will see the same thing. I guess we all have some things that are more precious to us than others, but none are more precious than the “testimonies of God." I remember reading about a wealthy man in Texas who wanted to be buried in his Cadillac. They did as he requested and dug a great big grave and lowered him into his grave in his Cadillac. While he was being lowered, someone was heard to whisper, “Man, that’s living.” Really? I don’t know where the man is spending eternity, but wherever it is he has no use for his Cadillac (Do you remember the old song: "You can't go to heaven in a limousine, cause the Lord don't allow no gasoline?"). I know that not everything we own would be considered worthless, but nothing that we own is worth our souls. Third, he wanted what he concentrated on to lead him to a greater reverence for God. HCSB: "Confirm what you said to your servant, for it produces reverence for you." He wanted to really hear in his heart what God was saying to him so that he would have a greater reverence for God. We will reverence what we concentrate most on. We need to ask ourselves if what we focus on daily is leading us to a deeper reverence for God. When our total focus is on what we own instead of on the One who owns us, we do not reverence Him as we should. A famous saying of St. Augustine was: “Oh God, you have made us for yourself and we are restless until our souls find their rest in you.” If you know anything about St. Augustine’s early struggles, you know that he really knew what he was talking about. St. Augustine’s life was miserable until he knew Christ in a personal way. His reverence for God was so profound that his writings had an effect on people who were prominent in the Protestant Reformation, e.g., Martin Luther and John Calvin. Read these verses and get them down in your heart and mind. As Jesus said, “life is more than food and raiment,” and I might add, "than any thing else." Bro. Joe
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