“I have not departed from thy judgments: for thou hast taught me” (Psalm 119:102).
TEXT — Psalm 119:97-104
Message
During Sunday school, a teacher asked her class of first-graders if anyone could describe a Christian. A little boy quickly raised his hand and stated, “Christians are nice people, who never complain, argue, or talk back”; he then added, “My Daddy is a good Christian, but my Mummy isn’t”.
In the passage today, a testimony is given concerning the effect of God’s word on the writer. He became wiser than his enemies, his teachers, and the ancients (aged and wise people), who did not have the experience of salvation. He had a good understanding of the Scriptures, which kept him from sin and every evil way. He faced temptations and trials which were unavoidable.
But he overcame them all by living and meditating on the word of God. His experience of true grace and peace set him out among the people of his age. The entire narrative is the transformative power of the word of God to effect salvation and a righteous lifestyle. Present-day believers face the same challenges, trials, and temptations which came to the saints of old.
If indeed we have met Christ and have been genuinely converted, we should live a glorious and victorious life over sin. These are the days in which you find so-called believers, and even ministers of the gospel getting involved in one scandal or the other and living lives contrary to God’s standard.
Instead of just following the crowd in their mass decline into the sins of society, let us move into a special class of righteous people, and by God’s grace model true Christianity wherever we find ourselves. By our strength alone we cannot make it, but His grace is more than enough to keep us standing till He comes (Titus 2:11-14).
Thought for the day
If God’s word in you doesn’t distinguish you, you’ve extinguished its power.
Listed among “500 most powerful people on the planet” by the Foreign Policy magazine in 2013, Pastor (Dr.) William F. Kumuyi is the founder and General Superintendent of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry (DCLM) headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria. DCLM started in 1973 as a 15-member Bible study group right in Kumuyi’s apartment at University of Lagos where he was a lecturer. His revolutionary Bible teaching on personal holiness and commitment to evangelism soon gained so much traction and resulted in a widespread revival.
