I Kings 3:14
“So if you walk in My ways and keep My statutes and commandments, just as your father David did, I will prolong your days.”
God blesses His children. He especially blesses His children who walk in obedience to Him. Today’s verse is one of many that say this.
This reminds me of the parable of the talents. The boss gave three of his servants sums of money in which they were to invest and make a return. After a certain period of time the boss came back to get an accounting. The first two doubled the money and were praised. The third buried his. He was punished.
What is the job we are to do? Today’s verse is the answer, “Walk in My ways…”. What are His ways? Jesus summed it up in Matthew 22:36-40, to love God and love people. Some may say, “That’s a short summary for a very big bible.” True. What’s the bible about? The Old Testament is very story based. It’s Israel attempting to walk in His ways. Some times they do well, other times not. Our lives can involve many of the same struggles of the people involved. We can learn much from it.
The New Testament involves Jesus, the promised savior. His attitude is amazing. He teaches the attitudes we should have called the beatitudes. He dies for our sins. Israel has a tough time with this. Jesus isn’t who they expected, so they pass on Him and continue to wait for their messiah to this day. The church is born, which is us. We are told to share Jesus’ good news with the world.
The bible teaches much about sin and how to avoid it. As we live we understand that. His ways don’t involve sin. We learn to stay on His path and avoid sin. Unfortunately we will stumble. Fortunately Jesus’ sacrifice had paid for this. We confess it and return to the path, praising Him for what He’s done.
There is another set of characters in the bible, the devil and his demons. They are trying to overthrow God’s kingdom. Part of that strategy is to attack His children, us. He puts temptations in our path, he whispers thoughts in our heads, all to get us to sin. He’s good at what he does. The worldly culture follows him. He lies and paints his ways as fun and successful. He’s wrong. His ways leads to broken relationships and slavery.
Jesus fixes the lives of those who bought the devil’s lies. He frees them from slavery. Sometimes this is easier than others. Some wrestle with the addictions their entire lives. Some seem to be delivered instantly. God helps all of these. They can have a successful, rich godly life.
To walk in His ways is more complicated than loving God and others. All the drama of life does so. But in one sense it is that easy. God modeled walking with Him with our first parents, Adam and Eve. They worked in the garden, enjoyed each other and would walk with God as well. We’ve learned that we have to avoid the fruit that He says to. We do fail at times. We confess and He forgives and we pick it up where we left off.
When we walk in His ways He blesses us. He fills us with joy, peace, success and good relationships that He also gives. Psalm 23 spells it out well. God is his shepherd so he gets his needs filled and a content heart. He also gets rest, sustenance, restoration when weary, guidance, help in difficult times, respect from others, even from his enemies. To top it off goodness and mercy follows him all the days of his life.
Lord, thank You for Your blessings. Thank You for Your ways. They are a blessing in themselves. They keep us out of trouble.