How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word. I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Praise be to you, O LORD; teach me your decrees. With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth. I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches. I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word.** Psalms 119:9-16 (NIV)**
Thomas Brooks writes “The ways of God are soul-strengthening ways. They confirm the upright in heart, and make the upright strong; strong to withstand temptations, strong to conquer corruptions, strong to rejoice under afflictions, strong to perform the most heavenly duties, and strong to improve the most spiritual mercies.”
In His presence is fullness of joy - there is no love like God’s love. Its very definition encompasses all good: “Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control. Against such things there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23 (NIV). Does not all true and lasting joy, comfort and peace derive from the love of God in Christ Jesus and in the power of the Spirit indwelling every believer? Believers are wholly and dearly loved in the Beloved.
The Apostle Paul beautifully pens in Romans 8:6B (NIV) that “the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace”. This “life” Paul refers to is the very life of God of which believers are made partakers through the indwelling power of the Spirit. Nothing separates the believer from God’s love. Nothing. And if you are His, you are always His. There is nothing you can do to make Him love you more or less. Yet, we can foolishly choose not to walk in His light and in His presence – going our own way to our own harm - as He always dwells in light, as He Himself is light. Darkness in Scripture is always synonymous with evil. And, Scripture tells us, there is never peace for the wicked.
Paul ends Romans 8 with these magnificent verses to refresh our war torn souls: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: ‘For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:35-39 (NIV).
This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.** 1 John 1:5-7 (NIV)**