The Steps of a Good Man!

I am sure at one time or another you have been comforted by the words of the Psalmist in the 37th division which says, “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and he delighteth in his way.” I can’t tell you how many times I have wandered around in what to me was a maze of darkness and I have quoted that scripture, holding fast that at least God knew where I was going.

Learning to walk by faith and trusting God is a process – it does not occur even in big revelations where you have this mountaintop experience and all of a sudden everything in your being conforms to groping around with no “mind of your own” on this pathway blazed with light. Many people stick to one version of the Bible and refuse to look at others – I used to be that way – so I understand. What I want to encourage you to do is look at other versions – sometimes another version can bring the truth of the scripture home to you in just the place that you need it.

Consider today’s theme verse from the Message translation:

21-22 Wicked borrows and never returns;

Righteous gives and gives.
Generous gets it all in the end;
Stingy is cut off at the pass.

23-24 Stalwart walks in step with God;
his path blazed by God, he’s happy.
If he stumbles, he’s not down for long;
God has a grip on his hand. Psalm 37:21-24 (MSG)

Now this translation brought a new light on what was an often quoted and held onto scripture – I can hold onto it now with a deeper depth of revelation and hope – for this contemporary language addresses where I live today!

Many years ago we were privileged to have Ben Kinchelow come to our church and speak – (at that time it was a really big deal for a television personality to come to our little church). In his message he spoke of the importance of daily reading the Bible and even more so having a plan that provided some consistency. He told a story of when he was a young Christian how he set out to read the Bible cover to cover and all of a sudden he got to the “begots” – and got stuck. He didn’t have a clue what the purpose of the “begots” were and almost stoped his reading plan. The Holy Spirit being the helper that He is told him not to stop- that when he got to a page he didn’t understand – JUST TURN THE PAGE!

We grow in trees of righteousness – we don’t always understand – sometimes we need to just turn the page – and sometimes we turn the page and it was an important step and by turning it too quickly we stumble and fall – as we read this theme passage of scripture we find that even then God has a promise to quickly pick us up and set us back on our path, for “He has a grip on our hand”. With this kind of redemption plan – how can anyone turn it down?

God Bless You,
Maria