02 Aug 24 in Twenty-Ten: Scripture Memory Verse #15
“Turn my eyes from worthless things; and give me life in your ways.” Psalm 119:37 (ESV)
Heard a terrifically impactful sermon yesterday only to have the same theme repeated in another terrifically impactful message the same day. Ha. Imagine that.
Once again, today, I heard the same theme repeated in a new voice… equally terrifically impactful.
Same theme, 3 different messages, in less than 24 hours; what are the chances of that? A lot when it’s from God!
“Idiot Girl” would scratch her head and go, “Wow, that’s, like, too weird. What a total coincidence!” (Duh.)
“Pharisee Girl” would get all uppity and think, “Oh, I know exactly who needs to be hearing this and am I ever gonna give it to her!” (Duh, again.)
But if you’re serious about your walk and honest with the Lord about your stuff then, like “Disciple Girl”, you say, “OK, Lord, I know You love me so much that you’ve repeated this theme to me 3 times and I want to get the lesson because I want to change where I need to change. So, what’s my take-away?”
Do you want me to tell you what the common theme was? OK, but if I tell you then… you’re going to have to think about it and how it implicates you, too. 🙂
The theme: Worldliness.
The attitude of worldliness where we are seduced by what we SEE and it controls us, manipulates us; reels us in and causes us to waste our time and our life on worthless things (aka- “the lust of the eyes”).
I spent some time with the Lord this today thinking over the 3 messages I heard and about where and how it fits me. He reminded me again that His Word- His perfectly complete, timeless, error-free and living Word has something… actually a lot, to say about the worthlessness of worldliness. A good verse, and I often pray it, is Psalm 119:37, and it’s drilling deeper into me today.
“Turn my eyes from worthless things, and give me life in your ways.” Psalm 119:37 ESV
I do love that the Amplified Bible really amplifies the verse more specifically…
“Turn away my eyes from beholding vanity (idols and idolatry); and restore me to vigorous life and health in Your ways.”
So, if we’re being honest (and I hope we won’t be any other way) then we have to admit that the greatest lure to worthless worldliness comes as a result of what we turn our eyes to. What we see with our eyes registers in our minds, appeals to our senses, and results in our hungry hearts screaming, “I want it! I’ve GOT TO HAVE IT! NOW!” And what is it that we likely turn our eyes to most often? Well, for about a bazillion of us it’s, yep, you’ve got it… the TELEVISION! Take a look at this…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrQjQtKWIa8]
OUCH! If Television is a drug, are we addicted?
How much of our life are we wasting on the pursuit of worthless things… things that are of absolutely no… N-O, eternal value whatsoever? The kinds of things that will suck the life out of us if we let them, and if we thoughtlessly allow them to have full reign over us. The answer: TURN! Turn your eyes from them, turn them off, turn away.
What are we thoughtlessly turning our eyes toward, not considering the oh-so-subtle messages that are negatively teaching and training us. Yes, yes I do watch TV… all 55 inches of it (not my purchase)… discriminately, discerningly, selectively; intentionally, not thoughtlessly. I am not suggesting you rip your plasma off the wall and throw it out the window. We can just as easily cop a worthless, worldly attitude by turning our eyes to magazines, books, the internet, etc. What I am suggesting is that we all take a little personal inventory of the kinds of things we are turning our eyes toward. How much time are we spending ingesting with our eyes the worthless and worldly things that are robbing us of life, in comparison to the most worthy things; the eternally valuable and holy things that bring life?
Worldly or worthy? You decide!
Pressing on in His love ~
xo – Punky