BLESSED THE BOUNDARIES

BLESS THE BOUNDARIES

READ:
Psalm 1

Blessed is the man who walks not in the
counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in
the path of sinners.  -Psalm 1:1

In all the years I've worked with people, I've yet to meet someone whose life was all messed up because he or she kept God's commands.  Yet, in a day when personal freedom is celebrated as an inalienable right, talk of conforming our lifestyle to God's ways is often viewed as an infringement.  And anyone who speaks out in favor of God's boundaries is ruled out of bounds.  But in this frenzy to be free, it should not go unnoticed that our society is increasingly marked with a haunting sense of meaninglessness and despair.

God's people should have distinctly different view of boundaries.  Like the psalmist, we must realize that a blessed life comes from delighting in the law of the Lord (Psalm 1:2 - not in living like those who "walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take" (v.1 NIV).  As believers in Jesus will recognize that God's boundaries are not meant to take the pizazz out of life.  Instead, they are divine fences constructed with God's wisdom to help us avoid the treachery and trouble of reckless living.

Next time you are tempted to break through God's boundaries, remember His loving purpose in putting up fences.  Choose to bless God for the boundaries and for the way they bless you.  - Joe Stowell

What freedom lies with all who choose
To Live for God each day!
But chains of bondage shackle those
Who choose some other way. -D. DeHaan
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God's fences keep you
within the bounds of His blessings.

INSIGHT
Psalm 1 presents two ways of living.  It contrasts the rootedness of the godly (vv.1-3) with the instability of the ungodly (vv.4-6), and is a call to live according to God's Word.  By rejecting ungodly ways but delighting and obeying God's laws, the godly person lives a joyful, fruitful, and secure life.  The life of the person who rejects God is like chaff, brief and futile, with little eternal usefulness (v.4).  The psalmist's conclusion?  Judgment and destruction await the ungodly (v.5), whereas God protects and preserves the righteous (v.6).  "Blessed," the first word of the psalm, is decisively contrasted with "perish," its last word.

Have a blessed day and week ahead.
God Our Creator's Love Always
Unity & Peace