Based on Psalm 141 (New King James Version)
“Lord, I cry out to You; make haste to me! Give ear to my voice when I cry out to You. Let my prayer be set before You as incense, the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips. Do not incline my heart to any evil thing, to practice wicked works with men who work iniquity; and do not let me eat of their delicacies. Let the righteous strike me; it shall be a kindness. And let him rebuke me; it shall be as excellent oil; let my head not refuse it. For still my prayer is against the deeds of the wicked. Their judges are overthrown by the sides of the cliff, and they hear my words, for they are sweet. Our bones are scattered at the mouth of the grave, as when one plows and breaks up the earth. But my eyes are upon You, O God the Lord; in You I take refuge; do not leave my soul destitute. Keep me from the snares they have laid for me, and from the traps of the workers of iniquity. Let the wicked fall into their own nets, while I escape safely.
Who are you? To be able to answer that question correctly, the best advice I could give you is to not let yourself be guided by your own opinion, and don’t answer too quickly, or else, you will not arrive to the right answer. To be able to answer this question, you need silence, solitude, time, sincerity, and the light of the Word of God. It’s not good to use your own light, per se. When we use our own light to see things, especially what we do, you can never see things that clearly. The Word of God teaches us this principle: “You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.” Matthew 7:16-20. So then, if you wish to know who you really are, you need to see your works, the things you have done, your fruits, your actions. This is also something the Word says: “Then the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying, ‘Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, and this temple to lie in ruins?’ Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Consider your ways! You have sown much, and bring in little; you eat, but do not have enough; you drink, but you are not filled with drink; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and he who earns wages, earns wages to put into a bag with holes.’ Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Consider your ways!’” Haggai 1:3-7. Do not commit the mistake of thinking that God is interested in manmade buildings, because the ones that He has always been interested in are the temples of our hearts. So, observe your fruits and consider your ways. What have you done?
I have to say that as the universal church of God, we have severe problems. And if you don’t believe it, just look around you, look at your own lives, your families, everything that surrounds you. We all have something that is wrong. The Word says this to bring even more clarity to the issue: “Set the trumpet to your mouth! He shall come like an eagle against the house of the Lord, because they have transgressed My covenant and rebelled against My law. Israel will cry to Me, ‘My God, we know You!’ Israel has rejected the good; the enemy will pursue him. They set up kings, but not by Me; they made princes, but I did not acknowledge them. From their silver and gold they made idols for themselves—that they might be cut off. Your calf is rejected, O Samaria! My anger is aroused against them—how long until they attain to innocence? For from Israel is even this: a workman made it, and it is not God; but the calf of Samaria shall be broken to pieces. They sow the wind, and reap the whirlwind. The stalk has no bud; it shall never produce meal. If it should produce, aliens would swallow it up. Israel is swallowed up; now they are among the Gentiles like a vessel in which is no pleasure. For they have gone up to Assyria, like a wild donkey alone by itself; Ephraim has hired lovers. Yes, though they have hired among the nations, now I will gather them; and they shall sorrow a little, because of the burden of the king of princes. Because Ephraim has made many altars for sin, they have become for him altars for sinning. I have written for him the great things of My law, but they were considered a strange thing. For the sacrifices of My offerings they sacrifice flesh and eat it, but the Lord does not accept them. Now He will remember their iniquity and punish their sins. They shall return to Egypt. For Israel has forgotten his Maker, and has built temples; Judah also has multiplied fortified cities; but I will send fire upon his cities, and it shall devour his palaces.” Hosea 8. Of what can be observed, as believers, we have dedicated ourselves more to building and supporting things that should be either secondary to God or quite simply should not even be in our lives. For example, what can be idols in a person’s life? Everything that takes the place of God. God’s blessings can even be turned into an idol when something or someone is given preference over God. An idol can be your family, your career or job, your wealth, your hobbies, your pleasures, etc. They can be good things, but when they are put ahead of God, a blessing is being turned into something evil and sinful. And of course, the greatest problem of all is when God is not retained in their knowledge or taken into consideration, when not consulting Him, when dismissing His will and ignoring His Word. What good can come out of a person that does not consider God? This is what the Word says that happens when God is not considered: “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.” Romans 1:28-32. It seems like the world is full of madness and disorder, even within God’s so-called people, right? This passage clears it all up. If God is not considered, God will then give them over to a debased mind. And you might say, “I am not ignoring God.” But, if you approve of those that do, even though you don’t do it yourself, I’m afraid that you are also part of the problem, because the one that approves evil is just as guilty as the one that commits evil. This is what God says.
How can all of this come about by reading today’s passage? Simple, because it is necessary to understand and comprehend what your true position is so that you can know how to come to God and ask for His help. Are you like this David that loved God? Are you like the righteous that David is speaking of? Or are you of those that practice wicked works, those that commit iniquity, evil judges, those that lay snares and traps, those that approve evil? The will of God is not to destroy the sinner, but rather, that the sinner repent. Here is His mercy and love, as it is written: “When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, ‘Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?’ She said, ‘No one, Lord.’ And Jesus said to her, ‘Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.’” John 8:10-11. God desires everyone’s wellbeing, and He can forgive everything. But, come to God truthfully, repent, and sin no more. Who do you finally choose to be? Lord bless! John