Psalm 119:59 (NLT) I ponder the direction of my life, and I turned to follow your laws.
Is water wet? Now, I know that sounds like a really silly question. At the same time, you might be really asking yourself, is water wet? I know that was a thing on the internet a couple of years ago. I digress. The reason I'm asking is because sometimes hearing one thing is true isn't enough for you to really believe that that thing is true.
I know that's been the case for me. I remember growing up and the stove being hot. I remember my parents saying, "Hey, y'all, don't touch that." Well, what do we have to do? We had to touch it to find out that it was hot. Faith can be like that, too, sometimes. And I don't mean that in a scary way. I mean that from a place of it being challenging. How do you know what's true? What's not true? What's real? What's fake?
A Personal Story of Discovery
Today we're going to lean into Psalm chapter 119, and we're going to read verse 59. And it says, "I ponder the direction of my life, and I turned to follow your laws." I'm going to tell you a story about when I was a senior in high school, and I had this conversation with God, if you will. A little bit of history—I'm someone who grew up in the church, and I remember hearing all throughout life that God is good. He's this, he's that, and I believed in God. But at the same time, I didn't really know how much of it was true or how much of it was people just being people.
I remember being at this youth night that I didn't really want to go to, and I didn't hear anything audible or anything like that. It was more so this impression on my heart that I felt, that I now know was the Lord. But I remember Him asking me, "You know I love you, right? And if you don't know, why don't you come and find out?" And then He left the conversation between me and me. Either one, He is who everybody's been saying He is, and I should follow Him, or two, He's not, and I can keep living my life the way that I've been living it.
Well, I decided that day to follow Christ and really find out for myself.
The Question We All Face
But once again, that's the hard part about faith. I think for all of us, whether we've been following Christ for a really long time, or whether we're trying to figure out if we want a relationship with Him at all, we get to the spot where you have to ask the question of, is my life going in the direction that I want it to go in? Is this really what's best for me?
Truth of the matter is, God's the only one who really has the answer for that. I know what it looks like to do things off of my own strength and off of my own decision making, and at the same time, I also know how messed up I am sometimes, to be honest. Do I really want to be the one that's over the outcome of my life? And that's the question that I ultimately had to come to grips with within myself.
The Invitation to Discover
So maybe God is inviting you the same way He invited me to come and find out. Either one, He is who everyone says He is and who the Bible says He is, or two, He's not. But there's only one way you can find out. I'm a living witness to say He's exactly who everyone says He is, and more.
But even as someone who's been following Him, there's still areas of my life that I have to lean in and allow Him to show me what He wants for me. And that may be different than what I want for myself. So my encouragement is lean in. The cool part about it is you don't have to figure it out by yourself. We're here and we're praying for you. We're thinking of you. You don't have to find out by yourself.
