Begin Here, Remain Here (4)

I thought about my ways,
And turned my feet to Your testimonies.
I made haste, and did not delay
To keep Your commandments.  Psalm 119.59, 60

Clueless
I am not a handyman. Susie will be the first to tell you that.

If it can’t be fixed by a screwdriver or a hammer, I’m going for the phone book. Sometimes this clutziness can be a little unnerving. As when, for some reason yet unknown to me, the house alarm once suddenly began to go off, I mean, in spades. Lights started flashing. A horn loud enough to hear on the other side of the neighborhood began to blare. All the key pads by the doors were lit up and screaming at me, “Do something, you idiot!”

But I didn’t have a clue. Here I was, joint-owner of this home and its security system, and something I had done had tripped it big time, but I didn’t know where to turn to shut off the noise and get things back to normal.

After nearly 30 minutes of casting about for a solution, I finally called the company which installed the system. A very kind person on the other end of the line walked me through what to do and, in just a few minutes, the system was back to normal.

Wouldn’t it have been wonderful if, when things suddenly started to go wrong, I’d been prepared by knowing where to turn and what to do to get this system back on track?

Seeking relief
Repentance is like that. Repentance, we recall, is an act of grace, in which the Spirit of God brings us to recognize, acknowledge, grieve for, and turn away from our sins, in order to walk the path of righteousness with Jesus more consistently.

Repentance may be an act of grace, but that doesn’t mean it’s, you know, fun. Repentance involves conviction, embarrassment, shame, sorrow, grieving – who signs up for that?

But it is precisely by these means that God moves us to seek resolution to this unnerving situation. When we are convicted of sin, if we have been sincerely convicted, we want relief, we want out from under the feeling of guilt or shame, we want to be back into the favor of the Lord and our neighbor as soon as we can.

It would be a good idea, since evidently repentance is something God intends to visit upon us daily, if, when conviction comes, we know right away where to turn for relief.

To the Law and the testimony!
The psalmist knew where to turn: to the testimonies and commandments of God. Whenever he found that he had strayed into an unrighteous path, the solution was simple: find the good path again.

But what if you’re not familiar with the Law of God? Or if you barely know your way around the Scriptures? Then you’re going to lurch around in panic until you dial up someone who can show you the way back to the right path again. And what if that someone’s not in when you call?

This is why it’s so important that each of us as believers feed daily and heartily on the Word of God, finding joy, delight, and true spiritual sustenance in the pages of the whole counsel of God (Jer. 15.16). The psalmist instructs us to hide the Word of God in our hearts (Ps. 119.9-11). The Apostle Paul commands us to let the Word of Christ dwell in us richly (Col. 3.16). Jesus said that His Word and Spirit are our life (Jn. 6.63). You will flounder in sin, straining like a turtle on its back to get upright again, as long as you remain ignorant of the path you should be following. It’s the path of Jesus, the path of God’s commandments, the path of His Word (1 Jn. 2.1-16).

That Word alone can equip us for every good work (2 Tim. 3.15-17). Repentance issues in good works appropriate to it, as both John the Baptist and the Apostle Paul explained (Matt. 3.8; Acts 26.20). The “fruit worthy of repentance” – as John referred to it – is all spelled out for us in the Word of God. We have an easy-to-understand, readily-available manual of righteousness to guide us back into the ways of the Lord.

So before our embarrassment and shame at being convicted of sin turns to depression and despair – or worse, indifference and apathy – we need to turn our feet back to the testimonies and commandments of the Lord. The more we read, study, and meditate on the Word of God, the readier we will be the next time something we do – or fail to do – sets off the alarms in our soul.

For reflection
1.  Do you find that your time in the Word of God is equipping you for everyday good works? Why or why not?

2.  Would you say that the Word of God dwells in you “richly” (Col. 3.16)? How might you improve in this area?

3.  How can Christians encourage and assist one another in becoming better grounded in God’s Word (Heb. 10.24)?

Next steps: What is one thing you might do to begin improving your time in the Word of God? Begin doing it today.

T. M. Moore

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This week’s ReVision study is Part 3 of a 10-part series, “Full Faith.” You can download “Begin Here, Remain Here” as a free PDF, prepared for personal or group study. Simply click here.

Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.