For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have been convicted over the last few weeks to seek to develop a disciplined prayer life. It is still a work in progress. Please pray for me, that the Holy Spirit may show me how to pray in a disciplined manner.
A person with no self-control is like a country with no defenses. They will be overrun by trouble.
The psalmist appears to be writing at a time when David is facing troubles, perhaps when he fled Jerusalem from his son Absalom. He asks how long God will be angry with David? How long will he allow David to be mocked? Yet despite the troubles which he sees for the king God has promised to love faithfully, the psalmist ends the psalm by praising the Lord. Can I do the same? Can I praise the Lord even when my troubles seem to go on without end?
Paul warns against those who contradict his teachings. He tells us that such people are arrogant and lack understanding. They have an unhealthy interest in controversies and arguments about words. Their approach to issues causes strife, malicious talk, slander, and friction among believers. They lead people to question the truth and whether their actually is such a thing as truth. They encourage people to believe that appearing godly is a way to become wealthy.
In various controversies in the Church today, who is causing the controversy? Those who are arguing for the traditional understanding of Biblical teaching, or those who are arguing to change it? Who is arguing for a new way of understanding the words used by the various writers of the Bible? It is my belief that the Bible is written so that it does not require a scholar to understand what is meant. If someone is teaching a doctrine that requires a scholar’s knowledge of the Bible, I question the validity of that doctrine.
Paul goes on to tell us that godliness in and of itself is of great value. Let us seek to be godly for the sake of being godly, not as a means of acquiring wealth. Those who desire wealth easily fall into temptation. The love of money, the desire to acquire ever more money, results in people doing all sorts of evil things. People often justify doing that which they know is wrong in the pursuit of wealth. There is nothing wrong with being wealthy, but making acquiring wealth one of our goals can easily lead us into sin.
I mentioned yesterday the apparent divide among the government of Judah. When Zedekiah became king, he appears to have been sympathetic to Jeremiah. However, he was afraid to stand up to the members of his government who opposed Jeremiah. These were men who did not want to listen to the message God was sending through Jeremiah. When a group of men came to Zedekiah and demanded that Jeremiah be killed, Zedekiah did not tell them to kill him. Rather, Zedekiah told them that he could not stop them. Later, when another man came to Zedekiah to plead for Jeremiah, Zedekiah ordered him to gather some men and rescue Jeremiah. Elsewhere we are told that Zedekiah did what was wrong in the eyes of the Lord. It appears that his sin was that he failed to stand in opposition to evil men.
