Casandra Martin

Psalm 119:9-16

Purity isn’t really valued in our society. Sure, we all want clean air and fresh water, but purity of heart, mind, and spirit is seen as something naïve or quaint. While protecting the environment is important, God wants us to be vigilant about protecting the purity of our souls.

The second stanza of Psalm 119 begins with a question. “How can a young man keep his way pure?” We are not the only society to struggle with being saturated with sin or immersed in immorality. Just hoping that we can walk through the gauntlet of temptations and distractions unscathed is not going to be enough to keep ourselves pure. If we want to be pure, we have to set up a guard, a sentential, around our hearts. The answer to the psalmist’s question is that purity is best guarded by the Word of God.

When we store up His Word in our hearts, it not only brings us comfort, teaches us about righteousness, and gives us guidance, it offers us a protection that we can’t find anywhere else. His Word helps us navigate through the darkness of our culture. It helps us see His truth in the midst of the world’s lies. It lifts up His standard, offers us a refuge, extends grace, and holds us accountable. It serves as a shield, an anchor, a lamp, and a guardian. When we fill our minds with the Word of God, there isn’t any room left for the impurity of the world.

My Jesus Resolution today is to value my purity. Pure things don’t stay pure by accident. Keeping my way pure requires me to be diligent about setting a guard around my heart. This piece of Psalm 119 challenges me to seek, store up, declare, delight, meditate, fix my eyes, and not forget the riches of His Word. Committing myself to these seven actions sets a guard around my heart that helps me keep it pure.

Psalm 119:1-8

Halfhearted is an interesting word. The dictionary defines halfhearted as ‘having or showing little enthusiasm.’ I don’t like to think that I’m halfhearted, when I look in the mirror I can see it. I am halfhearted about things that I have to do, but don’t really want to do. I am halfhearted about things that are hard, difficult, or that stretch me too far. Halfhearted reveals my comfort zones, my pet habits, and the priorities that come to light in my actions, even when my words say something else.

Psalm 119 begins with a blessing on those who seek God with their whole heart. It encourages us to give ourselves diligently, enthusiastically, and wholeheartedly to studying and living the Word of the Lord. What is interesting about God’s Word is that nothing less than our whole heart will do. It is simply not possible to love God’s Word in a halfhearted way and have it be open to the change that He so deeply desires to work in us.

Yet, if I am honest, I too easily give away little pieces of my heart. I give it to smaller pleasures, lesser joys, and selfish satisfactions. That is why I am thankful that these first words in this song about loving God’s Word include a prayer for a wholehearted heart. “Oh that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes!” (Psalm 119:5) I am too easily distracted. I let stress, busyness, and worry pull my eyes and pieces of my heart out of focus. Praying for a heart that is steadfastly, wholly, enthusiastically devoted to His Word is my only hope.

My Jesus Resolution today is to pray for a wholehearted heart. I want my life to be defined by enthusiasm for God’s Word. I long for Him to gather up the pieces of my heart, stitch them together with grace, wash them clean, make them new, and give me a desire to be nothing less than steadfast and wholehearted in my love for Him.

“When you read God’s Word, you must constantly be saying to yourself, ‘It is talking to me, and about me.’” –Soren Kierkegaard

Do you have a passage of Scripture that just speaks to your heart? I hope so. I pray that there is a verse, a story, a song, or picture that fires your imagination and ignites your soul. The Bible is meant to do that. It is written to dig in deep, spread its roots, and change the rhythm of our hearts. When it does that, when it comes alive, that is when we have the best chance of being awestruck by His presence and transformed by His grace.

One of the passages that has a deep hold on my heart is found in the middle of the book. Psalm 119 is the prayer of a soul that longs to saturate itself in God’s Word. The psalm rehearses the blessings of living by His Word, contains reminders about the importance of His Word, weeps in repentance over the sin that takes up residence in our lives, and speaks with an aching desire to live a life that is immersed, directed, shaped, and defined by the truths contained in His Word. It is a living, breathing picture of the kind of heart I long to have.

Psalm 119 tugs at me, and I want to share its richness with you. Written as an acrostic poem, each of its twenty-two stanzas starts with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet, unfolding into an amazing picture of someone wholeheartedly devoted to God and His Word. Studies tell us it takes twenty-one days to develop a new habit. Psalm 119 challenges us to fall in love, surrender to deep transformation, and experience overflowing joy in twenty-two stanzas.

My Jesus Resolution today is to open my heart wide to the fullness of His Word. Kierkegaard is right, The Bible isn’t a dry, historical textbook. It is the living, active Word of God. When I read its words, I am drawn into His presence and can hear the whisper of His voice. It is the most personal, intimate book I will ever read. If I am willing to open up the middle of the book, I might just find Jesus growing right in the middle of me.

Your closet is sort of a snapshot of your life. Right? The thought is a little intimidating, but it really is true in many ways. Your closet is picture of who you are. It’s where you hang your clothes, stash your stuff, and keep the things that are the most personal to you. Some closets are organized, some are messy, some are big, some are small, some are stuffed to the rafters, and some just stick to the basics. Just like people.

Maybe that’s why what happened in my closet spoke so loudly to me. The muffled crash went unnoticed in the middle of the night. When I got up in the morning and opened the closet door, it looked like someone had come in and tossed my life upside down. Clothes were everywhere, the Christmas present I bought and lost was now in plain sight, and there was a hole in the wall. The rod from which I hung all my hangers and which supported the design of my closet was laying on the floor.

My husband looked things over, while I was just overwhelmed by the chaos. Turns out that whoever hung the rod in the closet had mounted the supports in the drywall, rather than making sure that it was firmly attached to a stud. It looked fine. You couldn’t tell that anything was wrong. Until what was anchoring my closet came apart, and I was left with my life laying all over the floor.

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.” – Matthew 7:24-25

My Jesus Resolution today is to make sure I’m building my life on the right foundation. Jesus is my Rock. Anything in my life that is built on anything else will not stand. It may look good for a while. I may not notice that anything is wrong until life crashes in and finds me standing in a mess. Building on the right foundation requires investment, deliberateness, and a commitment to anchor my soul in nothing less than the person of Jesus. Storms will hit my life, and my closet, but when I’m anchored in Jesus, at least I know that what is holding me up is rock solid.

The sign on the storefront said Hearing Solutions. I know the business is set up to serve people who need help with their physical hearing, but as I passed by I felt a tug at my heart. I wish there was a hearing solution for my soul.

Listening for the voice of God is essential for my soul’s well-being, but it is amazing how difficult it is. Our world is a noisy place. We live with the constant barrage of media, busyness, and opportunities for entertainment, success, and satisfaction all pulling for our attention. Even when I try to be quiet, the noise is deafening. My head and my heart keep up a constant storm of to-do lists, criticisms, wish-I-was-better-ats and what-else-do-I need-to-dos. All of this noise, the noise that hits me from every side as well as the noise that fills my mind, makes it hard to hear God’s voice.

It is no accident that the core statement of faith that God gave His people starts with the word “hear.” “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” (Deuteronomy 6:4) Every day, as the people remembered the Lord and recommitted their hearts to serving Him, they reminded themselves that God’s first instruction is to hear. Hearing ignites obedience. Hearing shapes perception. Hearing lets the words of God’s soak deep down into our souls and transform who we are. Hearing shapes our priorities. Hearing lets us be aware of God’s presence, see His power, and walk in His purpose.

My Jesus Resolution today is to listen. There are no hearing aids for the heart, but God teaches us how to adjust our hearing so that we can listen to His voice. He tells us to be still and know that He is God. He knows that we need to be quiet in order to balance the deafening rumbles of the world with the eternity-soaked echoes of God. He tells us to learn to recognize His voice. This comes from spending time in His presence and time in His Word. Listening isn’t easy in a world that encourages us to shout and scream and claim our place on the stage. Listening, though, is the key to unlocking the transformation that will help us look like Jesus.

There is an older gentleman at church whom I adore. He looks just like my grandfather. He is gentle, has a ready smile, and is always willing to help someone in need. One of the neatest things about him is his nickname. His family and close friends call him Honest. I don’t know the story behind his nickname, but I do find it intriguing.

The people who know him best gave him a nickname that says something powerful about his heart. Every time they call him by his nickname, he is reminded of who he is, of the special traits others see in him, and the standard he is called to live by. If your family and close friends could pick one word to describe you, what nickname would they give you?

It is an interesting question. Many of us don’t like the first word that pops into our heads. So then the question becomes who do you want to be? Pick one word that you would like to have describe who you are. Now think about what you need to do in order to make that word come to life in your life. You have a tremendous amount of say in what other people say about you. You get to decide what others see in you, how you make others feel, and the impression that you want to leave behind.

My Jesus Resolution today is to pick my nickname. It might be Joyful, Generous, Wise, Patient, Confident, or even Honest. I want to look in the mirror and through the pieces of my day and decide what I can do to bring that nickname to life. Striving to have that kind of nickname inspires me to measure my actions, taste my words, and weigh my motives. Just like Honest, I want the name I wear to not only say something about my character, but about the Savior whose grace makes all things possible.

Today is Labor Day – a day in which Americans stop and recognize the contribution made to our country by workers and laborers. We celebrate by taking the day off of work and enjoy time together with family and friends. Labor Day is seen as a transition time between summer and fall. Today is also a good day to stop and listen to God speak about the work He calls us to do.

1. God calls us to abound in good works.      1 Corinthians 15:58
2. Our works are to proclaim His glory.         Matthew 5:16
3. Our good works can be seen by all.            1 Timothy 5:25
4. Stir each other up to good works.               Hebrews 10:24
5. We are to commit our work to the Lord.    Proverbs 16:3
6. The work of God is to believe in Jesus.      John 6:29
7. Work for the Lord, rather than men.          Colossians 3:23
8. Bible study prepares us for good works.    2 Timothy 3:16-17
9. We are created for good works.                   Ephesians 2:10
10. Our good works bear fruit for God.            Colossians 1:10e

My Jesus Resolution today is recommit to doing good works in the Lord. Saved by grace, the things I do and the actions I engage in reveal the transformation being worked by God in my life. The deeper my surrender the more my works take on the character of Jesus. I want all of my labor to be a labor of love for the Savior who showed His great love for me.

“Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn. “ – Benjamin Franklin

It is the beginning of a new school year. School buses are rolling, lunches are packed, new backpacks are filled with supplies, and children are heading into classrooms ready to begin a new year of learning and exploration. It is an exciting time, a bittersweet time, and a time to reflect and renew our commitment to be learners.

Learning doesn’t just happen when you are a kid sitting in a classroom. Learning is a lifelong privilege. God intends for all of His children to be learners. He wants our eyes to be open, our hearts to be ready, and our minds to be quick to absorb the truths that He plants in our way. A willingness to learn is a wonderful characteristic of a mature follower of Christ. God’s lessons are everywhere – in His Word, His creation, and His people. Our job is to have eyes and hearts opened big enough to learn.

God’s teachers are everywhere as well. He uses children, strangers, co-workers, family, teenagers, friends, and even enemies to teach us lessons about how to be more like Jesus. Sometimes I don’t recognize a lesson or a teacher until the opportunity passes. Sometimes I am just too proud to learn what I so desperately need to know.

My Jesus Resolution today is to learn. I like what Benjamin Franklin had to say about learning. Not knowing the answer really isn’t a big deal. Being unwilling to search out and learn the answer is a much bigger problem. Having a teachable heart is essential for a soul that longs to look like Jesus. Remember to look for your lessons, pay attention to your teachers, and to learn something today.

Johann Sabastian Bach is one of the greatest composers in history. His writings shaped and transformed the music of his day, and continue to inspire us today with their beauty. Living in the late 17^th and early 18^th century, he wrote several hundred pieces, many of which were written to draw people closer to God.

A peek at his musical manuscripts reveals something interesting. At the top of his compositions, we find the letters “JJ” written in the corner. At the completion of his musical manuscripts, he penned “SDG” as the concluding statement to his music. A little lesson in Latin helps us understand Bach’s intentions. The letters that Bach wrote at the beginning and end of his music are prayers. JJ is an abbreviation for “Jesu Juva,” which translated into English means, “Jesus, help me.” At the beginning of every work, Bach beseeches the Lord to guide him. The SDG at the end of his music stands for “Soli Deo Gloria.” Here Bach prays that each piece of music will humbly proclaim “To God Alone [be] the Glory.”

You may not be a classical music fan, but Bach sets a challenging and inspiring example for us all. He encourages us to begin every day, every task with the prayer, “Jesus, help me.” Bach didn’t write one note without seeking God’s blessing. In the same way, I want to cover each piece of my day with the same prayer. Bach also wanted to the world to know that anything he accomplished, he did so that God alone would get the glory. What a powerful reminder that how we complete our tasks is just as important as how we begin them.

My Jesus Resolution today is to learn to follow Bach’s example. I am going to write “JJ” at the top of my to-do list. It will serve as a reminder to seek His wisdom, walk in His way, and surrender to His purpose as I move through my day. I am also going to write “SDG” at the bottom of my list. I want everything I do, even washing dishes and packing lunches, to reveal God’s glory and point people to Jesus. I love how Bach used simple letters to remind himself, and us, about who we serve and who is sovereign. I want to do the same. SDG

The ALS Ice Bucket challenge has gone viral. Social media is saturated with videos of people supporting a good cause and getting ice water dumped on their heads. For the few of you out of the loop, in the challenge someone is nominated to either donate money to support ALS research or submit to having a bucket of ice water dumped on them. They then have the privilege of nominating three people to complete the same challenge within 24 hours. To date, the ALS Foundation has raised awareness of this crippling disease and over $50 million dollars.

Watching video after video of my friends getting wet has been fun, but has also gotten me thinking. What impact would it have on our nation if Christians flooded the internet with videos, tweets, pictures, and status updates about kindnesses done in the name of Jesus? In Mark 9:41, Jesus said, “For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward.” Instead of pouring water over people’s heads (or maybe in addition to it), we could commit ourselves to offering a cup of water or any type of kindness to somebody in the name of Jesus.

Here is your three-step challenge: First, in the next 24 hours, do something deliberately kind for someone else. You can bake cookies, pick up trash, help someone to their car, donate to a charity, send a card, give a hug, or offer someone a cold drink of water. Use your imagination and creativity. Second, use social media – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. – to share your act of kindness with others. I’m not talking about bragging or being proud, but of encouraging others to join you in doing a kindness in the name of Jesus. Third, challenge three of your friends to do their own act of kindness in the next 24 hours.

My Jesus Resolution today is to accept Jesus’ cup of water challenge. I am going to go out of my way to show kindness to someone in the name of Jesus. I nominate and challenge you to do the same. How fast do you think a tidal wave of kindness can spread across this country?