Ps 5:8b TAKE OVER MY LIFE

TAKE OVER MY LIFE

“Make Thy way straight before my face.”

Ps 5:8b

There is no doubt in any believer’s mind what God’s way is! We do not have to be told that God wants us to love each other, to be kind and gentle, to be faithful and in control of our lives. We know that already. In fact, if we were all these things, there would be no need for the Ten Commandments. When the Psalmist said, “Make Thy way straight before my face,” his problem was not that he did not know what God’s way was. His problem was that he could not do it!

This is also your problem and mine. Because of our inborn sinful nature, we have a way of our own. Immorality comes a lot easier than sexual purity; envy and hate far precede love; anger and fighting seem to always take the place of kindness and gentleness. If anyone needs to petition the Lord to lead us on the straight and narrow way, we do!

I think it is clear that there is a conflict between our way and God’s way, something that St. Paul calls the conflict between the flesh and the Spirit. It is the Spirit that brings us to faith in Jesus Christ. It is the Spirit that gives us a clean conscience, and makes us sure we are going to heaven because our sins our forgiven. In this Psalm-verse we pray that the same Spirit that forgives us, would also take over our lives. We are asking the Spirit to keep us from doing the very things from which we have been forgiven.

When we pray, “Lord, make your way straight before my face,” we are asking our Lord to keep our eyes focused on the way of the Spirit. We asking Him to constantly remind us of the wonderful life God gives through His Spirit, and to supply the strength through the Gospel to live it. For the degree to which we are led by the Spirit, is the degree to which we will not carry out the desires of our flesh.