DAY 5.
Today the fifth stanza opens with the clear cut decision 'Lord teach me' the long days of the passed life are over the chasing around is finished.
The desire of the heart is to know the Lord and to walk with Him through the rest of my life on earth, by His grace I am His disciple.
This being the case we can look up to the Lord and daily expect something to come through the word that will build us up into an established disciple.
'Teach me' though a slow learner and one not used to discipline, may the Holy Spirit work on me so as to produce Christ likeness in me.
'Teach' here has the most common meaning to be trained in godly living, to apply my life to righteousness and holiness as the scriptures demand.
The truth is we were called originally as Christians to live this way it is only the lax living in the church that allowed us to get away with sub standard living.
The moment we begin to search after the Lord we realise that there is no little sin and big sin but rather the Lord is offended by all sin.
We need the Holy Spirit to root out the offending sin and to show us how repugnant sin is in the sight of God so that we follow righteousness carefully.
Our enemy is seeking any way he can to disturb our relationship with the Living God, he broke his in eternity and wants us to break ours on earth.
We need to be vigilant in our reading and studying of Gods word because that is the first step that Satan will take to break us down.
He will fight all along the way seeking to stop us having the spiritual food that we know that we need but that we struggle to take in.
So settle it once and for all the paramount importance of my life is to commune and walk with the Lord because I am one of His disciple.
This discipline is tough because the flesh is in opposition to it, the turn around from our lethargic way of living in the past is stark and demanding.
Others can do what we cannot do, others can go where we cannot go and others can waste time when we are brought to value time.
Discipline is vital if we are to grow in the Christian life and to come to spiritual maturity, the chastening experiences are as vital as the challenging excitement involved in climbing Gods holy hill.
The next heart desire is in v 34 'give me understanding' that is godly instruction, revealing the manner of life that we should be living.
That is far removed from the one that most of us are living at the moment, the Church is like the children of Israel of old waiting for judgement and destruction to take place.
We like to think that there is no further judgement place upon us but the scriptures are clear that the Christian will be judged on how they have lived since their conversion.
The 'understanding' that God gives is to bring us to walk on the path of righteousness
willingly and prosperously because it reveals the characteristics of Christ in us.
Now that involves taking great care over what I do, it makes me observant in what I do and it makes me watch what I say with greater urgency for godliness to come through.
We note the word 'make me' that sounds like forcing something the Lord does not do to us, the truth is we need gently persuading to go on the right route at times.
We still find it easy to look around when we should be looking up, we will always find someone to agree with us if it means slow down or come aside to rest.
The Holy Spirit will help us make the right decisions fulfilling the promises of the word, 'this is the way walk in it' we can come to the place where He will stop us turning to the right or left or even dare I say it going back.
When once we have found the delight and pleasure of communing with the Lord on the issues of life we can truly say 'how ever did I manage before'.
Now we come to the promises that affect our adjustments as we seek to walk on the right path and in the deeper things of God.
'Incline' v 36 points to us being made willing or favourable to accept the word of God especially where we are finding it hard to understand.
This is where the promises stand out because they are never hurtful or grievous but they are given to us for our benefit through application.
The promises are for all of Gods children but only those who receive them find the true benefit of them, all would like them but few spend time searching them out.
The word 'incline' has a much deeper thought though that we need to bring out here, it points to stretching forward for something or for expansion of understanding that brings us closer to the object.
The promise 'I will be with you' is only found by those following in the Masters footsteps, it is in the going that we find that He has gone before us.
The promise 'I will strengthen you' is found by observant Christians who in their weakness stretch forward to take hold of Gods strength and apply it to themselves.
The promise 'I will help you' is found to be true by those obedient souls who ask the Holy Spirit to take control of our life and create a clean heart within us.
Blessings abound when we let go and let God have His way in us and none of us are excluded from all the benefits but the ones who receive them are the obedient ones.
'Incline' then points to our stretching forth towards the goal set before us and through the mercy, love and grace of God our hearts are expanded to receive what otherwise would haver been missing.
Now we need to dwell on these issues because they bring the scriptures alive to us and bring us into a dimension of spiritual living we thought impossible to us.
Using the picture of the last study we move gently along by faith out of the ankle deep Christian life through the thigh deep waters and are launching out into the unknown with the Lord.
Now we are moving into uncharted territory spiritually speaking and the lessons received and the experience gained draw us closer to our precious Saviour.
He promised 'the things that I do you shall do also' John 12 so that Paul could say 'I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me' Philippians 4 v 13.
Now the promise given to the early disciples is also given to us so that we should be seeing miracles today at the hand of our Lord Jesus reaching out through us.
Then the promise given to the disciples by the Lord Jesus in Luke 10 v 19 'I give to you power to tread down serpents and scorpions' should be applied by us today to stand steadfast against the evil powers that attack us victoriously.
That word 'incline' brings us on to a higher platform of living than we could ever imagine yet it is one that we should be walking on as Christ's disciples.
The 'established word' v 38 is the established walk along the established way and we need to keep moving along the road that leads us to our heavenly Fathers presence.
We can expect great things from God because He is greater in all things than we can imagine or dream up, 'there is nothing to hard for God' so let us never forget it.
We need the upward look to become our natural view so that our communications are with the Lord and not an intermediary.
The mighty Holy Spirit will give the mastery over temptation and turn us away from those distracting side roads that become snares to the diligent Christian disciple.
We can say 'I have longed' v 40 but our Father can tell us that He has been longing to find us obedient to His word longer than we have been concerned.
He does quicken the obedient child v 40 and the Holy Spirit was given for that specific task of strengthening the weak, giving boldness to the bowed down and courage to the timid.
Claim the promises by the committing today and every day to the Lord so that you can become a diligent disciple for Gods glory.
