One summer I found a grocery list left behind in a shopping cart. It was scribbled on memo paper that featured Santa and his bag of toys. (Of course I’ve kept it. It’s inspiration for a story!)
Neatly scripted on the list are these words;
Cokes-Wild Red Cokes
tomatoe
butter
leaf lettuce
Hot Funyans (2)
Kit Kat miniature (2)
I have two thoughts about this list. The first is merely observant of the strange mix of healthy and unhealthy foods. The second thought is fuzzy. I sense the list is somehow a clue to a future book character waiting to be developed in the shadows of my mind.
Lists are great reflections of the lives attached to them.
Psalm words are like a list to me. Men wrote them and they are about men’s lives, yet they are also a collection of phrases that reveal a lot about God’s character.
For instance, although the eight verses of Psalm 101seem to be a list of what King David plans to do with his life, because he is addressing God with this list, I see hidden truths about God’s character, too.
I will sing of mercy and loving-kindness and justice; to You, O lord, I will sing.
I will behave myself wisely and give heed to the blameless way.
I will walk with my house in integrity and with a blameless heart.
I will set no base or wicked thing before my eyes.
I will know no evil person or thing.
I will cut off he who has a proud, haughty, arrogant heart.
I will look upon the faithful of the land that they may dwell with me.
He who is blameless shall minister to me.
He who is deceiving or tells lies shall not dwell in my house or presence.
Verse 8 (summary)
“Morning after morning I will root up all the wicked in the land, that I may eliminate all the evildoers from the city of the Lord.”
If you knew nothing about God and wanted to understand Him, you could read Psalm 101 and learn something about God’s likes and dislikes. (Maybe Psalms are like Facebook entries with the viewer being able to see what the page owner likes and dislikes.)
In King David’s to-do -list, I see these thoughts about God.
- God wants mercy, loving-kindness, and justice.
- God wants wise behavior, integrity, and blameless ways.
- God does not want base ways (absent morals, offensive), or wicked or evil persons, things, or ways.
- God has no connection to proud, haughty, an arrogant hearts.
- God is a companion to faithful and blameless people. (A state ONLY achieved through God’s provision of Christ and our acceptance of this fact.)
- God does not keep company with deceivers and liars.
- God uproots and eliminates the wicked and evildoers diligently, daily and continually.
King David’s list of “will do” is wonderful, but frankly, a to-do-list is usually only as meaningful as the “doing” that is done! In this case, David seeks a partner to be part of the accomplishment. His question in verse 2 seems to be a version of, “When do we get started God?”
Our to-do-lists are a step of direction, but without God’s partnership, they become meaningless and ineffective in His plan.
My Prayer
“Dear God, steer me to what You are doing. Help me to see Your to-do-list and make it my own. After that, HELP ME to do what You ask. Without You in this process, I neither see the plan, nor am I able to accomplish the plan. I am at my best a dim-sighted weakling waiting for You to get the plan in motion. Amen.”
Note to my readers,
I have another blog I am writing to encourage those who are stressed.www.stressbless.com