Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth

 

How can a young person maintain a pure life? By guarding it according to your instructions! With all my heart I seek you. Do not allow me to stray from your commands! In my heart I store up your words, so I might not sin against you.  Psalm 119:9-11

 How do we Abide in Christ and live a godly life that bears His fruit? By living out what we learn in His Word. It seems like such a simple question with such a simple answer, and yet, none of it is simple! The advice the psalmist gives here is to a young person. While it is important, critical even, for young people to begin their life this way, establishing good patterns that become grooves of good habits in their mind, it’s just as important for old folks like me! In fact, if I remember correctly, I first encountered these verses as a young person and took them to heart, beginning to study and memorize God’s Word. Now it’s not as much of a struggle to make it a part of my day because that pattern, that expectation, is already there. Do I do my Bible study every day? No, but I definitely miss it when I don’t! I do it far more often than not, and it’s a part of my routine, my rhythm of daily life. So for all of you young people out there, and those of us that are young at heart and still moldable to God’s patterns, let’s look at how we can incorporate these things into our life, that we might not sin against God.

 The first things the psalmist recommends is to guard our lives according to God’s instructions. You’ve probably heard of the Bible referred to as, “Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth” (BIBLE). God’s Word is where we find His instructions, His commands. You’ve likely heard of the Ten Commandments, maybe even seen one of the many movies made about their inception. Before I began walking with Jesus, I, like many people, saw these as burdensome rules. These were things I “had to” do. I saw them as things that took the fun out of life and made everything I enjoyed a sin. Why did I think this? Not because I regularly engaged in the things the ten commandments caution us against, but because that’s what the world, the enemy, had taught me to think. I lived in a culture that saw rules, any rules, as oppressive. Then as I learned more and more about the instructions God gave us in His Word, I came to realize that they weren’t heavy or oppressive. His yoke is easy and His burden is light (Matthew 11:28-30). God’s instructions were given to us to make our lives better! It’s like learning how to cook. Some people hate following recipes and think that the particular order and processes involved are unnecessary. But take a beurre blanc, a white sauce, for example. The instructions will tell you to melt butter in a pan, then sprinkle the flour over top. You cook this for a couple of minutes so the flour no longer tastes “raw,” then you slowly whisk the milk in, a little at a time, allowing the liquid to be absorbed by the flour. If you rebel against the instructions and just toss all the ingredients into a pot together, it’s just not going to come out the same! If you want the smooth, creamy richness of a beurre blanc, you have to follow the instructions. If you want a life that glorifies God and emanates joy to all those around you, You have to follow His instructions!

 Next, we are entreated to seek Him will all our hearts. I don’t think this means that we are to think of nothing but God, but rather, I think it means that in all we think about we are to put Him first. As I think about my finances, which have been on my mind a lot lately as you can probably guess, I need to keep God first in my plans. This means prioritizing my tithes and offerings above my personal wants and needs. This means being ethical and above board when it comes to pursuing promotions and opportunities that I am presented with. If there is a “loophole” or “workaround” that seems unethical, my heart cautions me against it because I want to honor God with ALL my heart and put Him first in ALL I do. Then I get to rejoice all the more when I encounter those lovely deals and “stacks” that come together according to the rules as I can see God blessing me through them.

 After this, we are told to ask God to keep us from straying from His commands. I’m presented with an image in my mind of “The Sims” and other similar simulation games. I’ve played these since I was a small child and we found “Little Computer People” in our Atari ST (IYKYK). In these games you have people with independent minds and wills, but you can pick them up and move them where you want them to be, hoping they will do what you want them to do. You can put up blockades so they don’t travel in certain ways that could cause them harm. I’ve often equated this with how God works in my life. Like I’m driving down the road and he closes a section to have me go another way or puts a really slow person in front of me, or has me be followed by a police officer. Maybe I’m over thinking things, but I’ve often seen them have results that I’ve appreciated, missing out on being in a big accident or showing up in the parking lot at just the same time as someone else I needed to see. I don’t know about you, but I really want God to keep me from straying from His commands. I want Him to bring into my life the reminders I need to stay on track. I want the fellowship of His people, His Word in my heart, and His Holy Spirit speaking to me.

 Finally, we are instructed to store up God’s Word in our hearts. For a long time I took this to mean that I had to be memorizing the Bible and since my brain surgeries, this had been difficult if not impossible. I’ve learned, though, that God’s Word can be in my heart even if I can’t recite it syllable by syllable or give you chapter and verse. He’s gifted us with modern search engines that do a pretty good job of figuring out what I’m trying to get at. If you looked at my search history, you would find sprinkled into the “kingdom of two crowns days played red” where I was trying to help my husband with his video game and “amazon shop with points promotions” where I was learning about my most recent fun financial thing these searches:

• His yoke is easy and His burden is light
• cast our crowns at Jesus feet
• my life is not my own scripture
• dead to sin slave to Christ
• as a man thinketh in his heart·

 You see, God’s Word is in my heart, I just need a little extra help to access it. When I’m thinking about something, scripture comes to mind. I can’t quote the whole verse, but I have enough of the words that when I type the above into Bing, it comes back with the full verse and reference. Sometimes I’m extra blessed by this route as I not only will get the scripture but I can often find additional teaching on it that expands my understanding. Just because I struggle with word-for-word memorization, doesn’t mean I can’t store up God’s Word in my heart.

Here’s the Thing: The enemy wants us to think that these admonitions are overwhelming and impossible. But the reality is that guarding our lives according to God’s instructions, seeking Him with all our hearts, asking Him to keep us from straying, and storing up God’s Word all lead to an overflow of joy and blessing in our lives! These things are not burdensome, they are pleasure! They do not keep us from fun, they bring us abundant joy and all good things.