On The Journey--Teth!

You have dealt well with Your servant,
O LORD, according to Your word.
Teach me good judgment and knowledge,
For I believe Your commandments.
Before I was afflicted I went astray,
But now I keep Your word.
You are good, and do good;
Teach me Your statutes.
The proud have forged a lie against me,
But I will keep Your precepts with my whole heart.
Their heart is as fat as grease,
But I delight in Your law.
It is good for me that I have been afflicted,
That I may learn Your statutes.
The law of Your mouth is better to me
Than thousands of coins of gold and silver.

The ninth letter of the alphabet and the ninth stanza bring home a reality that most of us can recognize.

How often has someone attempted to tell us how good  God is--before we finally opened our eyes and hearts to realize how true that statement was and is? Looking back on our lives before we accepted God's truth and His ways, we went our own way. But because He had plans and purpose for our lives--He kept us. And then He allowed us to fall into the pitfalls the enemy had laid because we didn't want to hear truth, and He rescued us from ourselves.

We didn't come into knowledge of His truth until we had been afflicted by life and our disobedience. But once we came into the knowledge of His truth and understood just how much He loves us--many of us pursued knowledge of Him through His Word and wanted to cement our relationship with Him.

Can we see ourselves in this stanza? Have we reached a point where we understand that we need to know His Word to overcome all the trials and challenges that are bound to come? When others lie about us--do we recognize the enemy's attempt to draw us away from God, pulling us astray--forgetting God's Word?

People full of false pride will lie about us, on us and to our faces when they are influenced by the enemy and have not come to a place in their lives where they acknowledge God. What should our response be to liars? We let them know their lies have been exposed and then we pray for them, encouraging them to seek God and His righteousness. We let them know that God hates liars and the lake of fire is prepared for liars, but because of His love, they have an opportunity to get right with God.

Pride goes before the fall of many--those who are determined to never admit when they're wrong. Acknowledging where we went wrong and demonstrating a willingness to change is a character trait of the mature. Always seeking the limelight, no matter what a person has to do to get there is a demonstration of character flaws, by those full of false pride and very immature. They will never admit they were wrong.

But in the end, when we reach the place--where the writer is--we own our mistakes and acknowledge we need to know God's Word and allow His plans to be fulfilled in our lives. Once we get into His Word and allow His Word to get into us, we recognize for ourselves that His Word is indeed more precious than silver and gold.