January 29: THE HORSE COMES FIRST
Through Your precepts I get understanding; Therefore I hate every false way. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. I have sworn and confirmed that I will keep Your righteous judgements. I am afflicted very much; Revive me, O LORD, according to Your word. Psalm 119:104-107
To get understanding does not happen by accident. The psalmist here was afflicted very much due to his love for God’s true way. Beloved, if you are accused of “legalism” in your desire to honor the precepts of the Lord, you are in great company. Many have preceded you whose love for God meant that they believed what He said.
Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day. You through Your commandments, make me wiser than my enemies; for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, For Your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients, because I keep Your precepts. Psalm 119:97-100
This world will constantly test your love for your Heavenly Father through various forms of influence and pressure to conform to worldly ways. Such pressures are intensifying. Legislation directs people to go against the law of God. There is more to come! The Lord allows it, that we might be presented with opportunities to choose, confirm, and reconfirm our stance: for Him or against. As we are tested and choose rightly, spiritual “muscle” increases.
The choice to love Him supremely is accompanied by supernatural power to hold high His banner of love, even when everyone around you is compromising with the world and calling you a legalist. In actuality, legalism is an effort to earn one’s own salvation by works “putting the cart before the horse.” In this metaphor, the “horse” is a vital love relationship with Jesus, which is followed by the “cart” of obedience. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. (1 John 5:3)
Jesus came to demonstrate how burdensome manmade rules and traditions become, especially when not distinguished from divine instructions. He was falsely accused of breaking the Sabbath (John 5:18) because He did not obey their rules. But love for Him transforms us so that His will for us will actually become our own will. Honoring His commandments should become as natural as breathing.
When Jesus comes for His bride, all the world will have had opportunity to hear and accept His precepts—or not. It is within our power to hasten* that day by our obedience in preaching, teaching, and sharing the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27).
*…looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? 2 Peter 3:12
We ought to obey God rather than men. Acts 5:29b