God sees things two ways
As a child, we believed in right or wrong, good and bad. As we grew up, we learned that there is no absolute. Nothing is truly black or white, but most of adulthood is figuring out how to navigate shades of gray.
God sees things in absolutes. We’re a believer, or we aren’t. We follow the 10 Commandments perfectly(which only Jesus could do) or we’re sinners. God doesn’t accept “almost”, we are or we aren’t. Thankfully, Jesus lived the perfect life and His sacrifice covers our sin in God’s eyes. Belief in Jesus and the words of the Bible are what gifts us eternal happiness in heaven some day.
Walk – Stand – Sit
Psalm 1 warns that believers shouldn’t walk with sinners, stand with sinners, or sit with sinners. At first I thought those were just examples of ways to be influenced by unbelievers, but one of my sources explained why those phrases are so important. The People’s Bible Psalms 1-72 by John Brug explained that the series is a progression. Once believers start walking with unbelievers, they start to get influenced by what they hear and decide to linger to hear more. That’s when they stop moving on their journey toward God and metaphorically stand around talking about ideas that aren’t biblical or outright contradict God. As they start thinking more on those ideas, they sit down and get comfortable, completely ignoring the Christian path they were walking and drift away from God.
So why is Bible study important?
Psalm 1 reminds us that the only way to stay straight on our path to heaven is by studying the Bible daily. Only by consistently getting into the Bible ourselves can we stick to our path with God. Many Christians go to church every Sunday, or most Sundays, but never open the Bible during the week. While a weekly sermon is better than nothing, it is not the way to build a strong faith.
I know that reading the Bible everyday is a hard habit to get into. This blog is being started in order to get me deeper into the Bible, to help me build a daily habit as well as answer some questions I have. The devil doesn’t want us in the Bible consistently and uses a lot of ways to distract us, but Bible study is necessary to grow our faith. God often uses gardening imagery to symbolize faith and in Psalm 1 the writer uses a tree symbol.
Being a tree planted by water
Jeremiah 17:8 describes a tree by water better than Psalms does. “He will be like a tree planted by the water, that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.” (NIV 2011) This tree has a perfect life, always green and healthy despite drought or heat. It’s only healthy because its roots are constantly being watered by the stream. Trees that are far from the stream depend on rain or a gardener to keep them watered. Drought or hard times can wither those trees, but the tree that has its roots deep in the stream will stay healthy and strong.
Our faith is like that. If we build the habit of going daily to God’s Word, we can stay strong in our faith despite any hard times we live through.
Not all fruit is the same
One misunderstanding that I think is common is that everyone’s fruit will look the same. Fruits of faith are things we do that come from our love of God and deep faith. The Bible lists the fruits of faith as good works and loving emotions like love, joy, peace, patience, faithfulness, self control, and sacrificial giving. All of that looks different for different people. The Old Testament Jews were given rules to follow to outwardly show their inner faith, giving a minimum to keep God at the center of their life. (Most of the people who got written about in the Old Testament went way beyond the minimum guideline.)
The New Testament focuses on a willing heart sacrificing to God. Modern life has many more careers and lifestyles than existed in Jesus’ day, so it only makes sense that different people will be led by faith to produce different fruit. Some will have the time and heart to serve the church for hours a week. Some fruits will be raising godly children. Others can study the Bible and produce books, devotions, songs, poems, and other writings. Some make vibrant murals, while others make more subtle art. Other people clean houses or work in offices from a desire to help other. Service to others comes in many forms these days. No one’s faith is the same so everyone’s fruit of faith will be different.
If you want to buy a product with an image from above or other images I’ve created related to the Psalms, I have a store on Zazzle, Devotional WordArt, where you can buy them and I’ll get a portion of the sale.