Psalm 81
Bible Passage: Psalm 81
“Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, As in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams.” (1 Sam 15:22)
The Lord is the same thousands of years ago, today and forever. He delights that His Children walk in His Ways. Although now it is no more necessary to keep the Law to the letter, it is necessary to keep the law in Spirit and with a higher level. When Jesus was on earth, He tells us that the Law can be summarized as loving God and loving man. Coincidentally, the Jews believe in this and claim that it was written before Jesus time, but there are no records of such statement in the Old Testament.
It was Jesus who expounded and explained the true meaning of the Law and taught us how to keep the Law in Spirit and in Truth.
However, at times we do sin and fail to meet the standard that our Lord Jesus requires of us. Sometimes, we may let anger get the better of us or we may be unmerciful to others or we submit to the flesh instead of the Spirit. All these are sins to the eyes of our Lord and we have to be constantly aware of such transgression and be ready to humble ourselves before Him.
Many times as human weakness, we tend to justify our actions be it before man or before God.
Let us be reminded that God can see through to our hearts and know truly what we are feeling and thinking. There is nothing hidden before God.
The Spiritual Meeting is round the corner. Time really flies and it is just few days away.
Have we prepared ourselves for the Spiritual Meeting?
Have we fasted and prayed for the Spiritual Meeting?
Some members say that the Spiritual Meeting is the time where we charge up our spiritual lives. This is true especially in such a busy society. More importantly though, Spiritual Meeting is the time when we can really focus on God and have communion with Him through deep reflection of His Words, worshipping Him with songs and through prayers.
It is the time when we reflect our past year’s spiritual lives and the sins we have committed.
It is the time when we confess all our sins before our Lord and to ask Him for forgiveness. It is the time when we are renewed in the Spirit and justified by the Spirit once again.
It is the time when we let go our self-will and submit ourselves to the Holy Spirit.
It is a struggle to do the will of God completely.
Recently I told my RE students that I am not prepared to meet the Lord if He were to come now. There are just so many things that we need to fulfill as a disciple of Christ.
In my opinion, a Christian life is a ‘Work in Progress’. It is a transformation of the carnal self into a spiritual and sanctified being. When are we truly prepared? Perhaps only the Lord knows and He will know when is the best time to take us away to be with Him.
As an encouragement,
“By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.” (1 Jn 5:2-3)
Keeping Jesus’ commandments is not burdensome if we truly love God. Let us pray that we will be filled with the love of God and have the zeal and courage to walk in His Ways.