wisdom of the psalms...

today i had the pleasure of having Muriel Cook as the guest speaker in my personal development class. muriel is truely a blessing and delight to all who are around her. i felt so privilidged to be able to learn and hear from her today and wanted to write down what i learned and some thoughts i had. 


muriel taught on "the four stages/steps to spiritual maturity". this is not a formula, but a process. the first place to start in finding these steps is the bible. Psalm 116 held the instructions for how to strive for spriitual maturity. 
step one is salvation. verse 13 says, "I shall lift up the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the LORD." before anyone can begin to understand spiritual maturity one needs to have Christ in thier lives and hearts. without salvation, there is no basis for growth. 

step two is, living life to please God. verse 14 says "I shall pay my vows to the LORD, oh may it be in the presence of all His people." there are people who will claim to love God, be believers, and know all the right things to say, but be living for themselves and in sin. usually, these people will have something in thier lives that they are just not willing to give up. there are many believers who are stuck on this step. they want to please God but thier lives are always in the ditch. 

step three is, putting death to self and being alive in Christ. verse 15 says, "Precious in the sight of the LORD 

Is the death of His godly ones." here, God is talking about precious are those who put to death all desires and surrender to His plan. this is a very difficult thing to do. i know i often stuggle with this. i feel like paul when he writes in Romans, "For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want." there are so many things that can distract me and take away from my intimacy with Christ. i want to live a life fully and completely devoted to all that God has for me, not what i have for me. i want to live as paul says, "dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus." 

and step 4 is, to sacrifice with thanksgiving. in verse 17 we read, "To You I shall offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and call upon the name of the LORD." there are two levels of thanksgiving. the first is pure gratitude but the second is a level only belivers can grasp. it is being able to say thank you out of trust, not gratitude. in 1 corinthians God promises that He will not give us more than we can bear. i want to be like job, after he learns of all the awful things that have happened, it says, "he arose and tore his robe and shaved his head, and he fell to the ground and worshiped." even in the worst time of his life, he was still able to praise God because God is good. therefore we are able to trust and give thanks, even when the trials of life are bombarding us. 

we are told in luke that, “...Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” In third-world contries, before you are able to cook, you have to sift all the ingredients so that you can rid of all the bugs and rocks that get in the food. in the same way, when we are sifted, when we go through trails, God reveals to us the "bugs and rocks" in our lives that need to be cleaned out. it says in that verse that He prays for us. that is such a comforting thought. Jesus prays for me. after hearing that, i feel as though i can go through anything. He prays that our faith will not be shaken, but rather strengthened so that when we gotten through the trail, we will be able to share with others what the Lord taught you through that time in your life, and through that, strengthen and encourage them in the faith. 

and that is what i learned today.