Thoughts from King David

I will sing of lovingkindness and justice,
To You, O Lord, I will sing praises.
I will give heed to the blameless way.
When will You come to me? I will walk within my house in the integrity of my heart. I will set no worthless thing before my eyes; I hate the work of those who fall away; It shall not fasten its grip on me. A perverse heart shall depart from me;
I will know no evil.
Psalms 101:1-4.

It's interesting to me to read of this from King David.  4 times in this small section he says I will. 

Did not this King of Israel face distractions?  Did he not face what we do?  What I see in this is worthwhile goals. That which he was determined to do. I do not know if this was written before or after his fall concerning Bathsheba.  But it sets worthwhile goals for us today.

Since when do we need secular things to make us feel good?  Think about what he wrote here.  The one verse really has a lot of potential conviction to it.

"I will set no worthless thing before my eyes. I hate the works of those who fall away. It shall not fasten its grip on me."

Be real here, right now. What invisible chains are wrapped around you?  What is it about your life that you have convinced yourself that it's not that bad.  That it's harmless. It's not hurting anybody.  That it's just entertainment. That it's ok. Everyone is doing it.  They are all happy so why shouldn't I be happy.  Don't I deserve to be happy? Don't I deserve down time?  Don't I deserve...fill in the blank.

Be real here. Just really real here.

Honestly, truthfully, if He were standing right there with you.  Would Jesus really approve or appreciate what it is you are watching, doing or thinking? Would you ever ask Him to join you?

Not everything you experience or desire to experience is going to be a bad thing, thought or situation.  Not at all. God's Word says that He intended things to be good for mankind.  Mankind is who messed things up with Sin.

Seeking out Christ in the morning, noon and night is always a good thing.

"But what about having fun?"

Well there's a time and place for fun.
There's a greater importance on learning what it means to be a child of God. Used to be in school they taught that it was ok to have recess. To unwind a bit, but then at some point, someone would tell us all it's time to come back in and get serious.

Jesus often got away from everyone and everything to be with His Father.  Just them. Realistically it was all 3 of them together.  Strengthening, restoring, resting.  

We are a people constantly on the move.
In the last 30 years I have seen a rapid increase in more and more people without the ability to just relax.  Rather than enforce existing laws, the rulers of this world cater to that madness.

What's rather interesting is they now have adults behaving like toddlers.  Toddlers don't know or understand limitations of their physical being.  They think they are the Energizer bunny and then out they go. Fast asleep.  Today we have adults so addicted to this rapid pace they invented chemical concoctions to keep them awake and alert longer than the human body was designed to do. Might as well say toddlers on steroids.

We don't filter much in this world from our hearts and minds because we have designed excuses to fit the situations.

We don't do as King David said of not setting worthless things before our eyes.

Nobody's immune to it. We all do it.

But God sets the bar. He establishes the rules. He is the one who is creating us to be in His image again.  We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus.

So what do we do?  One thing is to take up the challenge of King David.  Really look at what you put before your eyes.

Is it God honoring?
Would you show it to Him, should He visit with you today?
Would He approve?

Consider wisely, He already is with you. He already sees you.
He already knows the difference between thoughts and intentions.
He knows what is in the heart of every man, woman and child.

This is as much for me to consider as all of you.  Jesus is coming soon.  This world isn't getting better, it's getting worse.

My heart says daily, "Come quickly Lord Jesus."