THE STEPS OF OBEDIENCE

April 24

Psalms 119:133 Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.

Iniquity: from the root: unequal. Something that is not equal to God’s righteousness.

As long as we live in this world, iniquity will be present with us; we will not be rid of it. The goal is to not let it have dominion over us. The only way for iniquity to not dominate us is to let God order our steps. We cannot pray, “Lord protect me, but let me go where I want”; “Lord, keep me healthy but don’t try to curb my food habits”; or even better, “Lord, help my spirit to reflect you, but don’t regulate my media diet”. If we do not want iniquity to have dominion over us, we need to also pray, “Lord, order my steps”, and obey his “ordering”.

The sad thing is that iniquity has no power of its own on us until we give it an invitation. Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil (1John 3:8) and He led captivity captive (Ephesians 4:8); we are protected with the seal of God. But as soon as we go the way of the enemy through disobedient action or attitude, a part of him becomes part of us. It becomes like a digital cookie, which creates a bridge to other ones, and, eventually, we get the virus that freezes our spiritual machine to a dead stop.

Let us not give over the victory to the enemy by voluntarily putting ourselves in harm’s way. Most temptations are avoided by staying away from temptation media wave channels. Let us rather tune in to God’s channel so He can “order” our “steps” in His Word.

May God help us today to order our paths away from iniquity.
May God help us today to obey His good, gentle and leading Words.
May God help us today not to invite glittering temptation.
May God help us today to have endurance in fighting.

1 Timothy 6:12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.

ANECDOTE:

There is a story of a southern man who came to a watchmaker and gave him the hands of a clock, saying: "I want yer to fix up dese hans. Dey jes' doan' keep no mo' kerrec' time for mo' den six monfs." "Where is the clock?" answered the watchmaker. "Out at de house on Injun Creek." "But I must have the clock." "Didn't I tell yer dar's nuffin' de matter wid de clock 'ceptin' de hans? And I done brought 'em to you. You jes' want the clock so you can tinker with it and charge me a big price. Gimme back dem hans." And so saying, he went off to find some reasonable watchmaker. Foolish as he was, his caution is very like that of those who try to regulate their lives without being made right on the inside. And their reason for not putting themselves into the hands of the Lord is very similar to the reason the colored man gave. They are afraid the price will be too great. They say, "We only wish to avoid this or that habit." But the Master Workman says, "I cannot regulate the hands unless I have the heart."