COMMIT
YOUR WAY TO THE LORD
BREAD
5 Commit your way to the LORD;
trust in him and he will do this: 6 He
will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause
like the noonday sun. Psalm 37:5-6 (NIV)
23 If the LORD
delights in a man's way, he makes his steps firm; 24
though he stumble, he will not fall, for the LORD upholds him with his hand. 25 I was young and now I am old, yet I have
never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread. 26 They are always generous and lend freely; their
children will be blessed. Psalm 37:23-26 (NIV)
28 For the LORD
loves the just and will not forsake his faithful ones. They will be protected
forever, but the offspring of the wicked will be cut off; 29 the righteous will inherit the land and
dwell in it forever. Psalm 37:28-29 (NIV)
5 Trust in the LORD
with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways acknowledge him, and
he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV)
3 Commit to the LORD
whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.
Proverbs 16:3 (NIV)
21 Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you
waver between two opinions? If the LORD
is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.” But the people said nothing. 1
Kings 18:21 (NIV)
15 “But if serving the LORD
seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will
serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods
of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household,
we will serve the LORD.” Joshua
24:15 (NIV)
3 And Samuel said to the whole house of Israel, “If
you are returning to the LORD with
all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths and
commit yourselves to the LORD and
serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.” 4 So
the Israelites put away their Baals and Ashtoreths, and served the LORD only. 1 Samuel
7:3-4 (NIV)
1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's
mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this
is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do
not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's
will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Romans 12:1-2 (NIV)
5 Offer right sacrifices and trust in the LORD. 6 Many
are asking, “Who can show us any good?” Let the light of your face shine upon
us, O LORD. 7 You have filled my heart with greater joy than
when their grain and new wine abound. 8 I
will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety. Psalm 4:5-8 (NIV)
BUTTER
“The word translated ‘commit’ in Psalm 37:5 quite literally means “to roll (in blood); be dyed red; figuratively meaning to take your ways to the foot of the cross. The blood of Jesus cleanses all our plans and our sins, purifying them. Enabling us through His power to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, pleasing Him in all things. The heart is deceitful beyond all cure. It is God alone Who can cleanse and direct us in the path which we should go – redeeming our time for His glory, for our good.” BHY
“The
difference between involvement and commitment is like ham and eggs. The
chicken is involved, the pig is committed.”
Anonymous
“The uncommitted
life isn't worth living.” Marshall Fishwick
“Christian patience is based upon the absolute, unshakeable
belief that God is sovereign and that He is at work in the lives of His
children. Christian patience stems from the knowledge that you will not be
forgotten nor forsaken by the God to whom you have committed your soul
regardless of what is happening around you.” Michael
Youssef
“Our failure to
readily follow His leading reflects a lack of deep confidence in His
goodness. We wonder whether He is merely
using us or wants to bless us. The
problem with unsteady commitment is not centrally a problem of the will; it is
rather a deficient belief. We simply do
not believe that the God who tells us to remain committed…is good. It follows that the basic cure for weak
commitment is renewed faith, not rededicated effort. Urgings to ‘love your wife and submit to your
husband whether you feel like it or not’ fail to lay the axe to the root of the
problem. Unless God’s goodness is
clearly established as the context for obedience, such exhortations will at
best keep the weeds of anger and dissension from spreading. They will not expose and rip out the hidden,
flourishing root system whose flower is the ugly growth of broken
promises…Obedience to God’s orders deepens our awareness of His goodness, and
our awareness of His goodness provides motivation for further obedience.” Larry Crabb
“On
several occasions the New Testament makes clear that cheap grace, the attempt
to be justified through faith in Christ without commitment to sanctification,
is illegitimate and impossible. The thrust of these passages is not
really that we should add works to our faith, as if it were possible to advance
one step forward into faith but to hesitate before adding a second step into
holiness. Faith and repentance are not separable quantities. To
have faith is to receive God’s Word as truth and rest upon it in dependent
trust; to repent is to have a new mind toward God, oneself, Christ and the
world, committing one's heart to new obedience to God. Obviously these
two factors are so interwoven that they are experienced as one, so that the
condition of justification is not faith plus repentance, but repentant faith.”
Richard Lovelace
“Some of Jesus’ strongest words were reserved for
hypocrites – for people who claimed to believe in God and follow His laws, but
in reality lived only for themselves. He
compared them to ‘whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but
inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean’ (Matthew 23:27). None of us is perfect; even the most
dedicated Christian falls short. When we
do, we need to confess it and seek God’s help to live more consistently. But hypocrisy – living a deliberate lie – is
another matter. Be on guard; don’t let
hypocrisy take root in your soul.
Instead, make sure of your commitment to Christ, and walk close to Him
every day.” Billy Graham
“Clearly,
this word (faith) immediately and fundamentally demands lordship, because it
has the underlying foundation of obedience, commitment, and submission….When
someone believes something, regardless of what it is, that belief changes them
and results in some action or behavior that is characteristic of the
belief. Every one of the characters in
Hebrews 11 had faith, but that faith always, without exception, resulted in an
outward action….Truly believing something, being fully persuaded of it, and
trusting in it automatically demands behavior that conforms to the belief….To
obey Him (Jesus) means we acknowledge His lordship and submit to His
authority.” J. D. Watson
“Chosen one of God, may you find it easy to follow
your King. May you find your life when you are willing to lose it for the sake
of the Kingdom. May our Lord lift you up to a place higher than you could ever
dream. May your choice to follow Christ echo throughout all generations that
follow you, and may you receive rewards on earth and in heaven for your
commitment to live for our mighty Lord. In Jesus' name, Amen.” Sheri Rose Shepherd
“Our identity as Jesus’ followers should define and dictate our lives.” Joseph Stowell, III
“Most of us get up in the morning saying, ‘I am going
to make something of my life, and I’ll follow Jesus too.’ But I just want you to know that we can’t
have it both ways. We have to have the
formula right. ‘Follow Me,’ Jesus said,
‘and as you follow Me, I will make something of your life.’” Joseph Stowell, III
“To be rebuffed by a loved one causes pain not
to be compared with the cruelties inflicted by an enemy. So your
indifference and unresponsiveness to My call brings anguish to My soul, indeed,
deeper grief than the crimes of the reprobate sinner. I have laid My rod
upon the sinner, but I have laid My hand upon you. And I have put My arm
around you to draw you closer, but you have been impatient and irritable as
though I sought to interfere with your liberty. I am able to
give you greater liberty than you will ever find by seeking to be independent
of Me. I seek not to interfere
with your happiness, but I do require that you relinquish your will; for I
cannot bless you as I desire until your will is yielded up and you accept Mine
in exchange. As you love Me, you
accept My will as your own, and the caliber and extent of your love for Me may
be accurately measured to the degree that you accept My will with a peaceful
heart. You can best
sing ‘My Jesus, I Love You’ when you can truly sing ‘Where He Leads Me, I Will
Follow.’ For whoever does not
take up his cross daily to follow Me cannot be My disciple.” Frances
J. Roberts
HEART
SAVOR
·
As we commit our way to
the Lord, He will make our righteousness shine like the dawn – the justice of
our cause like the noon day sun.
·
He will make out paths
straight as we acknowledge Him in all our ways.
·
Where He leads me, I
will follow.
“So
I come to tell you He’s alive, to tell you that He wipes every tear that falls. So I come to tell you that He saves, to shout
and to proclaim that He’s coming back for you.”
