His Encouragement #207

Welcome to His Encouragement Thursday! I don’t know about you, but Thursdays are my struggle day of the week. By Thursday, I have already been working hard at school and at home, and I just wish it would hurry up and be Friday already. LOL! I definitely need a little extra Jesus time on Thursdays.

Mark the blameless and behold the upright, for there is a future for the man of peace. But transgressors shall be altogether destroyed; the future of the wicked shall be cut off.
Psalm 37:37-38 (ESV)

If you have followed these Thursday posts for any length of time, you have learned that I am a person who tends to mentally spiral. I start out well enough — Bible Study, check! Praying, check! Give my best at work, check! Show kindness, check! Love my family, check! But sometimes, the simplest things get me off track quickly — a frustrating situation at work, got cut off by some jerk on the way home, maybe my daughter did something “bad” that day, or I logged onto my Twitter feed and saw some bad news — suddenly I’m racing down a path to fear and worry that I never meant to be on.

Sometimes, when I’m spiraling out of control, I yell things like, “I wish God would just tell me how to be or what to do. Then life would be easier.” This is a funny thing to say, right? Cause God is always telling us how to be and what to do in His Word. It’s just a matter of if our hearts (and ears and brains and eyes) are open enough to hear Him.

Over the course of Psalm 37, David has been giving us a guide of sorts to follow so that we can be the blameless and upright people he is talking about in line 37. To be a blameless and upright person we are not to fret, to not be envious, to trust in Yahweh, to do good, to commit all we do to God, to be still and wait patiently for God to act, to refrain from anger, to forsake wrath, to be meek, to be content, and to focus not on the evildoers but on God and God alone. When we do our best to actively do these things then we will be considered blameless and upright by God.

In line 37, David tells us that these blameless and upright people have a future where we will get to be men (and women) of peace. Sounds awesome, but what does it mean to be a person of peace?

In Luke 10, Jesus sends his disciples out two-by-two to spread His good news. Jesus gives very specific directions to these men including, “And whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house.’ And if a man of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him; but if not, it will return to you” (vs. 5-6; emphasis mine). Jesus continues in Luke 10 to describe people and cities who accept these disciples and their message and miracles as people who are receptive. I believe being receptive to Jesus’s message and acting on His message in some positive way is what it ultimately means to be a person of peace as described in psalm 37.

David’s description of a blameless, upright man of peace in psalm 37 may seem impossible to fulfill. I struggle with several of the character attributes myself. But Jesus is not looking for perfection. He is looking for someone who is receptive to His message and then follows through. Someone who HEARS God’s Word and then DOES it.

So, consider the following:
- Do you study God’s Word? Do you take to heart what He is teaching you in your studies? Do you ACT on what you have learned?
- Do you pray earnestly and often? It’s difficult to discern what God wants from you if you never talk to Him.
- Does God ever put something on your heart you know you need to do? Do you follow through?
- Do you show kindness to the people you come across every day in your life? Would you have invited the disciples into your home to give them a place to rest, to give them some nourishment, to give them support?

If you can say “YES” to these questions, you’re probably on the right path to becoming a person of peace as David describes in psalm 37. But if you said “NO” to the above questions, or you are worried that you are not as receptive as you could be, or you fear you may be a transgressor as described in psalm 37, then go to Jesus. Tell Him your worries, confess your fears and sins, and then LISTEN. He will guide you onto His right path. He will help you become a person of peace. It’s what He does!