The Key verses for "Living a Careful Life" is Psalm 101:2-4.
“I will be careful to lead a blameless life when will you come to me? I will walk in my house with a blameless heart. I will set before my eyes no vile thing. The deeds of faithless men I hate; they will not cling to me. Men of perverse heart shall be far from me; I will have nothing to do with evil.”
In part 1, we examined our inward reality. Our inward reality describes who we are at the very core of our being. From scripture we saw the call to be blameless. To be blameless means to be sincere, complete, or entirely whole towards God. David said, "I will be careful to lead a blameless life..."
Part 2--- Our Outward Expressions
Today we are going to move on and examine the first of five outward expressions as defined in Psalm 101:2-4. It is crucial to note that our outward expressions must flow from our inward reality of being blameless before the Lord. (Bottom-line- when our hearts are right; our actions are right.)
Outward Expression #1:
• I will walk in my house with a blameless heart.
This outward expression calls us to examine how we live inside our homes. In fact, our daily walk with God begins inside our home--- as soon as our feet hit the ground each morning. Have you ever thought about the fact that the real you comes out when you are at home? This is true because your home provides a comfortable environment where you tend to be yourself.
The word used for blameless in the phrase, "I will walk in my house with a blameless heart" carries the meaning of integrity and innocence. So how do we walk blamelessly inside our homes? We interact with our family members with integrity and innocence. For me, I am walking in integrity when my "no" means "no" and my "yes" means "yes." Likewise, I am walking in innocence when I have no hidden agendas, no behind the back moves, and no secrets.
I will never forget the night the Lord burned the call to "walk in my home with a blameless heart" into my life. On this particular night I was frantically trying to complete a speaking outline for an upcoming women’s event. My husband Jay was gone to a Bible study, and Jake and Andrew were running around the house. The dishes from dinner were still on the table, and I had so much to do that I did not know where to begin.
I told the boys, “Watch TV and do not fight.” The boys obeyed, and I started working on the speaking outline. As I worked, time quickly passed. I looked up from my computer and noticed the time read 9:00 pm. This surprised me, since my boys should have been in bed by 8:30. Immediately, I went into drill sergeant mode. I told the boys, “You have to take a bath, brush your teeth, say your prayers, and go to sleep as soon as possible.”
I put the boys in the bathtub and told them there was no time to play. They could talk quietly while I went and picked up their towels. I quickly walked across the house to find their towels and returned to wash the boys. As I stepped inside the door, I discovered two inches of water on the bathroom floor. I could not believe it! Immediately, I took the boys out of the tub and asked them what happened. Jake said, “Mom, we made up a game, and I won!” That did not impress me. In fact, I got very angry. I gave the boys a lecture, put them on their beds, and cleaned up the mess.
Once the floor was dry, I went into each room and told the boys how upset I was and that they needed to put on their pajamas and go to bed. That night we had no prayers, no snuggles, and no tucking into bed. I turned the lights out and told the boys to go to sleep.
After leaving the boys’ rooms, I took a few minutes to shake off my anger and returned to my computer to complete the speaking outline. As I typed, the Lord spoke to my heart. “Andrea, when you act like that do you think they have any idea that I make a difference in your life?” The question took me by surprise and became a life-changing question. Do the people closest to me know that Jesus makes a real difference in my life? My heart sank because I knew the answer to that question was often no. I fell to my knees and asked the Lord to forgive me. I then returned to my boys’ room and asked for their forgiveness as well.
The simple question from the Lord changed my perspective on life. The question brought an understanding that taught me that I could travel around this world telling others about Jesus, write Bible studies, and even speak at women’s conferences, yet miss the real point. You see, what Jesus was teaching me was that at the end of my life what would really matter the most was that my husband and my children could say, “Jesus made a real difference in her.”
How about you? Do the people inside your home know that Jesus makes a real difference in you? If not, focus on today's outward expression and live a life of innocence and integrity inside your home.
Blessings!
Andrea@TVM
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