WordLive - Year OneSample

Prepare: ‘But godliness with contentment is great gain’ (1 Timothy 6:6). What one thing most often robs you of your contentment? A to Z of godly living This delightful psalm reflects the wisdom tradition of the Old Testament. As your footnotes may reveal, it takes the form of an acrostic, each mini-section beginning with successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. It is literally an A to Z of godly living. The problem that is addressed is a very old one: we get confused, jealous or even angry when we see the godless do well in life, while the rest of us who are trying our best hit the buffers and experience the rough end of life. Where, we wonder, is God’s justice? Faith rewarded But taking a longer-term perspective reveals a higher truth: those with faith in God will be rewarded and those who follow their own ways will get their comeuppance: maybe not today or tomorrow, but one day in God’s good time. Notice the quick-fire imperatives in this psalm: do not fret (v 1); trust in the Lord (v 3); delight in him (v 4); be still (v 7); refrain from anger (v 8), etc. Then go back and list some of the blessings that are conditional on our compliance. Finally, the whole psalm is wrapped up with a glorious promise in verses 39 and 40: the Lord is our salvation and our stronghold. Respond: Take verse 39 (or any other if you prefer), commit it to memory and tuck it away in your heart. http://www.wordlive.org/Session/Classic/2012-10-07