Psalm 1:1-6 The psalmist reverses the natural way we learn to walk. A baby first learns to sit up and then gradually pulls himself up to the standing position. Finally, when he feels steady on his feet, he ventures to take the first step. God has not called us to a natural way of walking. He has called us to a supernatural walk. We walk in His ways, we stand in His righteousness, and we sit in His presence.
WE WALK IN HIS WAYS. First comes the desire in our lives to walk in His ways. We know the way we are going is not fruitful and that there must be a better way. Then we discover the way. Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” We recognize our own inability to walk in joy and peace, and we come to Jesus in our desperation. We discover that in our own strength we cannot take another step in this life. A divine exchange happens when we ask Jesus to forgive us for the way we have walked before (our own natural thinking and rationalization) and we confess our desire to walk as Jesus walked. Every unrighteous act, word or thought in our lives at that moment is cleansed. As far as the east is from the west, so far does God wipe away all of our transgressions, iniquities and sin. Our unrighteousness is exchanged for His righteousness. We are now able to stand in His righteousness, and we enter into His kingdom. His kingdom is not meat or drink, but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
WE STAND IN HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS. The desire to walk in His ways grows stronger and stronger as we receive more and more of the Lord’s strength into our lives. In all the areas of our weakness, He is able to come into our lives and be our strength. As we look to Jesus for our daily strength and His Word for our daily food, we are able to stand in His righteousness. We become steadfast in Him, and faithfulness and longsuffering begin to develop in our lives. The joy of the Lord becomes our daily strength, and we realize we are steady on our feet. We have the faith to begin to walk in the Spirit and be led by the Spirit, rather than having our natural or carnal minds control our way of walking in this life.
WE SIT IN HIS PRESENCE. The more we walk in His ways, the more the desire comes into our lives to sit in His presence. We realize that without Him we are helpless and can do nothing of eternal consequence in our lives. Our souls cry out to be more like Jesus. We know in order for this transformation to take place, we must spend more quiet time with Him. In His presence are fullness of joy and pleasures forever more. When we begin to walk in the Spirit, we enter His classroom of life; we have to still ourselves to learn of Him. The invitation is extended to us to find rest for our souls if we daily come to Jesus and let the Great Teacher, His Holy Spirit, instruct us in meekness and lowliness of heart. The more we daily still ourselves and stay our minds upon Jesus and His Word, the more we become like Him.
READ: Genesis 1:1-2:25; Matthew 1:1-2:12; Psalm 1:1-6; Proverbs 1:1-6
