God's Boys will be good boys!
I am grateful for your service and gifts and card for my birthday. I am grateful that you care and are attentive to my delicate condition, lately. Thank you for praying for me and telling me about it. I love seeing the heritage of brotherly love passing down from generation to generation. The care for your younger, and even elder siblings is refreshing.
As you swiftly fly into manhood and manly faith, the question becomes more urgent; "How can a young man keep his way pure?"
Christ has much help for the fallen and distressed and He has much protection for those whose hands are in His hand. It looks like a useless thing, to try to keep your way, sometimes. People are prospering in their way and they cheat and carry false balances. But Our Father in Heaven, whose name is always hallowed, carries the true and correct balance. He feeds and cares and shepherds our souls. When we fall, we, in and through Christ, have promises of restoration from His mighty and powerful hand. When we struggle, we know His comfort and grace and peace. When we are cast down, we are most sure that Our Father has reason and purpose and peace for us at the end of the difficult storm. "How do I take heed according to THY Word?" should be my question. Why is the purity of my soul the first to slip from my grasp?
This test is one of your scope into your own soul, before you shipwreck. If you are being guided, sometimes you may see an ice glacier sticking out of the water, so to speak. This is the impurity. Lord, I would not want to shipwreck. Hold me close to Yourself in my distresses, that the ship of my soul would not capsize. I want to be guided and directed by You.
The decision to trust that God is doing good, even when it feels bad, is nurtured by the Holy Spirit. It is the fruit of a well instructed conscience. It is the fruit of the rightly divided Word of God. I know that God is far above my circumstance and knows far more than I do. His way is right, though my soul is blinded to His goodness by grief or sin or ignorance of His ways. I will either put on the glasses that correct my vision, or the glasses that mar it with regards to God's goodness.
The first thing that I lose sight of, when I am determined to go my own way, is the sight of God's goodness. From Adam ie. "It was the woman that "YOU" gave me..." to Saul "It was the people, YOU left me with, demanding a sacrifice". We all blame the goodness of God when we have it in our minds to go our own way.
Lord You are good, should be our prayer. I want to do right, but my heart is bent to this or that evil course. It is not my Good God that has tempted me. It is not my Good God that has deceived me. I ate of the fruit and I beg for the sacrifice of Christ to cover and cleanse me and lead me in a straighter path, that I might not sin against You.
Memorizing the "Act of Contrition" has often blessed my soul when I have found myself wallowing in the mire of selfish sinful persistence. Scripture and the knowledge that it is not Him, it is I that have the problem.
Do I detest all my sins, because they offend Thee my God?Am I truly heartly sorry? Only the Holy Spirit can make those words true in the soul. Not the much saying and not the flagellation of the soul, by some outstanding act of penance, but the instructed conscience, blessed by the Holy Spirit. Open the eyes of the blinded by grief and help them have a sight of Your comfort and goodness, even through the dark foggy night of the soul. Bring Your Church to a place of ministry to the oppressed that will open the blinded eyes and comfort the broken hearted. That You may be glorified on the earth and seen as justified by the people that You have redeemed by Your most precious blood.
