Since the evangelistic meeting and my cry to the universe, I have been studying Ps 119. The speaker had referenced it and so had the preacher the previous Sunday, and I had been meaning to study it for some time.
It blows my mind.
I've been taking each acrostic section and paraphrasing it into my words. It amazes me how time and time again the writer promises to study, to meditate, to proclaim, to walk in God's rules/laws/precepts/commandments/statutes/promises. It is almost as if the writer was saying each verse a different day, renewing each day his promise to God to be faithful. And each day would be a new challenge to keep that promise.
It is fantastic for its application and not just a word study. One of my Bible teachers here memorized 119 in Hebrew for the word-study aspect since God's rules are addressed in so many different aspects as well as synonyms.
And then the chapel message today was on James 1:13-18a. It was the part where he says, "Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am being tempted by God,' for God cannot be tempted with evil and He Himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire...Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above , coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth." The speaker's main points were God is absolutely holy and unceasingly good.
What an encouragement. And what a rebuke. I was so focused on myself and finding out my mission in life so that I could pursue it that I lost focus on the most important thing - God. He is all I need. He is my everything. He is my mission and it does not matter what I fall into, or if I stay in the mud for a while because He is still always there waiting patiently for me to ask for help. He made me the way I am simply because He wanted to.
He is absolutely holy and unceasingly good. And by His words can I keep my way pure.