I'm Blessed

A couple of days ago, I posted this verse on Facebook:

"Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the lord,and on his law he meditates day and night." -Psalm 1:1-2

Words

Upon first glance, it looks as if scripture is stating, "cut off" all people who... just don't live the Godly life. In hindsight, I noticed the word counsel, the word blessing, and the word law. So I looked into each word, thank you Jesus for internet! One fundamental necessary when reading the bible is research so that we may fully grasp what scripture is saying to us.

1. Blessed ------> Because Psalm 1:1 is talking about men being blessed, I checked the bible concordance(link down below) and found out that blessed, in this verse, means to be favored; to be happy.

2. Counsel ------>According to the bible concordance, the word counsel, means to give advice; to give deliberate opinion or judgement, wisdom, etc. Some synonyms for this word, on google, are, guidance, direction and instruction. So the word actually means what it means.

3. Law -------------->In the old testament, law is actually "torah". Torah has many meanings(I'm still looking into it myself) and if you have time you should definitely look it up yourself, to simply put it, law means God's commandments to His children.

Putting It All Together

To me, the verse is really saying, happy is the man who does not walk in the wisdom, the guidance, and the direction of the wicked, stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in God's commandments, which he meditates on, day and night.

Old Covenant + New Covenant

It doesn't sound as harsh as it did at first glance, this actually sounds like some good advice. There is a balance. I had to surround myself with people that pointed me to Jesus. At the same time, I need to meditate on God's commandments. And even now, we live in the New covenant (New testament); his commandments are relevant today. We still need to love his son, Jesus Christ and live by his word, walking in spirit and in truth.

Jesus?

Yeah, He hung out with sinners but it was for a reason and that reason was to love them, To show them a truth the world could never comprehend. He saw their hearts and knew they needed Him and wanted to hear life-giving words that he spread to the Jews. On top of that, He went and died for the rest of the ungodly people on this earth. He died for us.

Reading Psalm 1-2 makes me ponder, who am I surrounded by? Am I surrounded by those that are headed in the same direction I am going in? Or, have I made my bed in the midst of those that cannot help me reach my destination, Jesus.

"I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." - Philippians 3:14 NKJV

And if I am in the midst of those who haven't necessarily made Jesus a priority, what am I doing about it? Am I being fed, or are they feeding me? When we stand together and sit together, do my actions reflect their own actions? (Don't take this as confirmation to shove Jesus down people's throats. Yzzy didn't say to do that! Don't do that.)

I noticed, the more I walk with Jesus the more I start to hang around the people who know him. People who have the wisdom and knowledge to help me walk my faith out. I noticed that I don't share as many commonalities, with certain people from my past as before Christ. It doesn't mean we don't speak or can't speak. It doesn't mean

they are bad people and aren't fun anymore,

in fact, to them, I might not be any fun anymore, it just means we've chosen different paths and that's okay. Those people are still awesome human beings but I can't spend ample time with those who aren't helping me walk towards my destiny. I have to make sure fellowship is on my schedule.

It's easy to fall back into old ways when you have no accountability and you don't read your bible. In seasons where I have shut out my spiritual family, bad things happened. I made mistakes that caused months of condemnation. I lost focus of God's promises because I was caught up in the moment and after it was too late, later believed the lie that God had not forgiven me. I felt guilty! At some point I couldn't even recognize his voice anymore; that, that broke my heart. In those dark times I did not feel favored or happy. I was slowly returning to the places that I had once left behind.

Meditate

Now, as the body of Christ, we do need to meditate on His law day and night. That means keeping the word alive in our hearts, minds, and even on our lips; speaking His word out loud. This is important because his word is our spiritual food:

"Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." -

-Mathew 4:4

The wort feeds our spirit and helps us to walk in spirit and in truth. I remember when I first gave my life to Jesus Christ, right then, I knew that I had received the Holy Spirit. I felt the difference and started hearing a voice in my spirit; it was God(I didn't know it at the time). Even as the Holy Spirit spoke, I didn't know if it was Him most of the time. It was always a hit or miss due to the fact that I had not established any kind of foundation in scripture. It was hard for me to know what God was really trying to tell me. Honestly, I didn't know it was important to read my bible in order to walk my faith out. As a few years passed by, I started reading the bible more and more and recognizing the Holy Spirit's voice more and more.(That's a whole other topic) The point is is that I started to become stronger, spiritually,because I had began to in-take spiritual food. This lead to spiritual growth. I started to handle tough situations better. I started to have more grace and compassion for people. I started to understand how I got myself into messy situations. I started to understand who I am and that I have a standard and it's good to have standards, especially with what is going on today. And because of this, I'm happy. I navigating this life better, Hallelujah!

"Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path." Psalm 119:105 NKJV

Walking with Jesus is journey. Some people instantly change, and most people. it takes time for him to clean us out. Go with His flow and don't be too hard on yourself :)

Conclusion

I am happy to walk in the counsel of people who love Jesus and walk towards the same destination. I am happy because I read the bible and gain wisdom to navigate this life; to keep myself out of trouble and stay uplifted and not depressed or hurt. Ask me if I'm blessed, and no matter what, I'll still say, "YEAH, I'm blessed bruh."

Whoever is reading this I pray that you are blessed. I pray that God orders your steps and that he sends godly people into your life to cover you in His truth, encourage you, and love you the way Christ loves you. In Jesus name, Amen.

Psalm 1:3 goes on to say: