The Best Question
A psalm of David.
1 LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary?
Who may live on your holy hill?
2 He whose walk is blameless
and who does what is righteous,
who speaks the truth from his heart
3 and has no slander on his tongue,
who does his neighbor no wrong
and casts no slur on his fellowman,
4 who despises a vile man
but honors those who fear the LORD,
who keeps his oath
even when it hurts,
5 who lends his money without usury
and does not accept a bribe against the innocent.
He who does these things
will never be shaken.
Bee's Thoughts:
A sanctuary is a shelter from danger or hardship... a place where one "will never be shaken" (v5). Whenever I am sad and in distress I will retreat into my 'sanctuary' (God). It's there where I rest my wounded soul, letting God heal my broken spirit.
Who can be in God's sanctuary? One who does all the above things. Hmmn... it seems it's a place for the 'perfect'?
Well, when one goes into the presence of God, all sins will have to be confessed as God reveals one's true self through His Holy Spirit. That's how God burnt away all that're wrong and purify one's heart.
Yes, the Lord did that to me whenever I ran into His sanctuary. He 'stripped' me to reveal what's in my heart and then began His purifying work in me so that I could be made whole again.
Dear Lord,
Thank You for being my sanctury each time I went into distress. Thank You for Your healing work as I surrender myself to You. Now I pray that You would remove what's not right in me and let me abide in You always. In Your holy name I pray. Amen.
Tommy's Thoughts:
I received a sms from an old friend today. She was surprised that I have submitted my life to God, asking me what made me to make that decision. She also asked me whether it’s because she doesn’t have a religion that made her feeling empty and lost. I prayed to God to help me with words when replying to her, sharing my faith to her. I told her God himself came to fill the same void inside my heart. When we open our heart to Him, He will change us from inside, guiding us to live a blameless life. It’s God working inside us and not through our own effort to be good.
In today’s Psalm, God gave us some guidelines to live a blameless life; to determine how we as Christian are doing in our walk:
- Be truthful (v2): We live in a society today that is manipulative, self-centered, and heavy into techniques, hidden agendas and lies; to get what we want. Being truthful sometime becomes unnecessary. God calls us to speak the truth from our heart. He knows how lies can eventually bring troubles, fear and complications into our lives; robbing us from living the life He wanted us to have.
- Control our speech (v3): We need to be careful with our words; to always speak the truth and refuse to slander others; how we use them reflects our relationship with God. Our tongue is one the most important things we need to control; like fire, that at the same time can bring light when it’s dark, it can also bring down a whole house when we are not careful.
- Keeping promises (v4): We need to be aware of not promising something we won’t be able to keep. It’s easy to promise when we wanted something; but keeping them requires us to be truly faithful and committed. But, once we broke a promise, it’s very hard to earn back the trust others have put on us. Like our Heavenly Father who always keeps his promises, we too need to always keep our promises.
“The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.”- James 3:6
Dear Lord, thank You for today, how You’ve made everything goes so smoothly as I’ve prayed for. You are just wonderful and I can’t be more thankful! I take this time to pray for my friend and also to all those who yet to know You, that You will one day fill their heart, giving them what they need most and bringing meaning and purpose to their lives. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.
.......the devotion of Bee & Tommy
