Monthly Archives: February 2015

by

Psalm 31

Tallapossa 4In you, O LORD, I have taken refuge; let me never be put to shame; deliver me in your righteousness. Turn your ear to me, come quickly to my rescue; be my rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me. Since you are my rock and my fortress, for the sake of your name lead and guide me. Free me from the trap that is set for me, for you are my refuge. Into your hands I commit my spirit; redeem me, O LORD, the God of truth. I hate those who cling to worthless idols; I trust in the LORD. I will be glad and rejoice in your love, for you saw my affliction and knew the anguish of my soul. You have not handed me over to the enemy but have set my feet in a spacious place. Be merciful to me, O LORD, for I am in distress; my eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and my body with grief. My life is consumed by anguish and my years by groaning; my strength fails because of my affliction and my bones grow weak. Because of all my enemies, I am the utter contempt of my neighbors; I am a dread to my friends those who see me on the street flee from me. I am forgotten by them as though I were dead; I have become like broken pottery. For I hear the slander of many; there is terror on every side; they conspire against me and plot to take my life. But I trust in you, O LORD; I say, “You are my God.” My times are in your hands; deliver me from my enemies and from those who pursue me. Let your face shine on your servant; save me in your unfailing love. Let me not be put to shame, O LORD, for I have cried out to you; but let the wicked be put to shame and lie silent in the grave. Let their lying lips be silenced, for with pride and contempt they speak arrogantly against the righteous. How great is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you, which you bestow in the sight of men on those who take refuge in you. In the shelter of your presence you hide them from the intrigues of men; in your dwelling you keep them safe from accusing tongues. Praise be to the LORD, for he showed his wonderful love to me when I was in a besieged city. In my alarm I said, “I am cut off from your sight!” Yet you heard my cry for mercy when I called to you for help. Love the LORD, all his saints! The LORD preserves the faithful, but the proud he pays back in full. Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD. (NIV)

 

I can see this as a psalm that the Lord would prayer, since it reflects his life on this earth.

As I read this psalm today I could not help think of David’s life from the time that Samuel anointed him as the king that would replace Saul in I Samuel 15:13 to the time of his death I Kings 2:10,11. I King 1:29 is David’s testimony to this “And the king swore, and said, as Jehovah lives, who hath redeemed my soul out of all adversity, verily as I swore unto thee by Jehovah, the God of Israel, saying, assuredly Solomon thy son shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne in my stead; verily so will I do this day. David knew that his seed would reign after him as promised by God; however his son Absalom try to take the kingdom from him by the use of force. Adonijah try to take the kingdom when David was well stricken in years by using politics to arrange a collation that would make him king. It is interesting that David did not interfere with Adonijah setting himself up as King. I Kings 1:6 “His father (David) had never interfered with him by asking, “Why do you behave as you do?” He was also very handsome and was born next after Absalom”. However, when informed of what was happening he charged Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet and Benaiah son of Jehoiada to set up Solomon as king. As I study David’s life I see a pattern of how David waited on the Lord to make major decisions. His indecision is sometimes viewed as not taking a stand, however the more I study David’s life I can see how this was his waiting on God to intervene.

 

Studying the life of President George W. Bush I learned that this psalm as well as psalm 91 were his two favorite psalms. I can see several of the characteristics in his life and his administration that seem to others as being indecisive, but in reality he was reflecting the characteristics of a mature servant of Christ.  The characteristic of waiting on the Lord is a characteristic that only comes by having a personal wilderness experience where God’s presence since so far removed from you.  In fact some of the verse that Christ quoted to Satan in Matthew chapter four when he was in the wilderness came from Psalms 91. Knowing about the faith of President George W. Bush in God I can now see how the role of President given to him by God came about after much preparation of the events God placed in his life.

 

I have tried to apply this principle of waiting in my own life over the past several years I realized how strong my personal belief must be in God’s ability to take care of everything in our life. What then is the role I take in making those major decisions in my life?

Keys from this chapter:

  • I have taken refuge in the Lord
  • I let God lead and guide me
  • Into God’s hands I commit my spirit
  • I hate those who cling to worthless idols
  • I trust in the LORD
  • I will be glad and rejoice in your love
  • I trust in the Lord
  • I have cried out to the Lord
  • I called to the Lord for help
  • I will be strong and take heart
  • I hope in the LORD
  • And most important, I will leave the judgment of the wicked, proud and those who cling to worthless idols to the Lord.

 

Sometimes my waiting on the Lord may be viewed by others as indecisiveness, a weakness or not taking a stand on an issue, but like David I have learned to wait upon the Lord.

 

 

by

PSALM 26

cherry grove pier

Vindicate me, O LORD, for I have led a blameless life; I have trusted in the LORD without wavering.  Test me, O LORD, and try me, examine my heart and my mind; for your love is ever before me, and I walk continually in your truth.  I do not sit with deceitful men, nor do I consort with hypocrites; I abhor the assembly of evildoers and refuse to sit with the wicked.  I wash my hands in innocence, and go about your altar, O LORD, proclaiming aloud your praise and telling of all your wonderful deeds.  I love the house where you live, O LORD, the place where your glory dwells. Do not take away my soul along with sinners, my life with bloodthirsty men, in whose hands are wicked schemes, whose right hands are full of bribes.  But I lead a blameless life; redeem me and be merciful to me.  My feet stand on level ground; in the great assembly I will praise the LORD.

As I look at this Psalm written by David I see a Psalm of prayer.  The word I is used in this Psalm ten times and the word me or my is used twelve times.  Usually when we focus on how many times a person uses the word I in their conversation it portrays a sense of self-confidence in their abilities which leads to pride and the desire to live a life without God.  But here in this Psalm David’s I’s focus on his walk with God and his desire separation from the way of the wicked,  By looking at the words I and me we can get an idea of how David leads a blameless life.  He starts out with the request to the Lord of vindicate me.  He is asking the Lord to clear him of either some accusation, blame, suspicion, or doubt with supporting arguments stating he has led a blameless life. He is asking the Lord to defend, maintain, or insist on the recognition of his blameless life because he trusts in the Lord without wavering.    In other words his faith did not move unsteadily back and forth his faith remains unchanging.  Unchanging faith in the Lord is a characteristic that David learned at an early age in his life.  It was this faith in the Lord that kept him going when he was running from Saul.  David’s faith knew who God was, knew the nature of God, knew the nature of man, and knew how to walk in truth.  This walk of truth that David had is the same walk that we need to follow in our walk on this earth

Paul gives us the fruits that are a characteristic of this walk in Galatians 5:

  • love
  • joy
  • peace
  • longsuffering
  • kindness
  • goodness
  • faithfulness
  • meekness
  • self-control

He goes on in this chapter to state that the whole law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself.

David asks the Lord to test him, try, him, and examine his heart and his mind.  When you ask for a procedure that includes a critical evaluation and a means of determining the presence, quality, or truth about your statement I lead a blameless life; then I hope you are ready for the real test.  This will put you in the same league as Job, Joseph, and David himself.  However, David was sure of two facts: that God’s love is forever, and David’s walk was a regular daily walk which was not interrupted and was steady according to God’s truth.

Verses four and five reminds me of Psalm one.  David refused to sit with deceitful (deliberately misleading) men, nor to keep company or be in accord or agreement with those that pretend to practice the beliefs, feelings, and virtues of godliness but whom do not hold or possess these qualities.  He also hated the assembly of those that performs evil acts and refused to be in the company of those who were evil by nature and who had destructive, troublesome and corrupt practices.

Verses six and seven gives us a key to David’s blameless walk.  He includes in these verses the act of washing his hands in innocence as he states in Psalm 51 “Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow” which refers to his knowing he is not perfect.  This is the beauty of God’s Word for it is like a mirror which when we look into it we get a sense of Christ’s nature and this similarity in appearance and character will become more of our nature the more we stay in His Word.  This was fact number two; fact number one is David’s proclaiming aloud the praises of God and the telling of His wonderful deeds.  Question, do you let others know how great God is to you?   David did.

As I look at verse four “I do not sit with deceitful men, nor do I consort with hypocrites” I must stop and think about what groups would others people around me associate me with?  As we look into God’s Word (the true mirror to our inward self) it should reveal to us our true intent of our hearts.  However, how do I appear to others?  Can they see the true intents of my heart?  It depends upon what their true intents are.  Remember, a person’s view of God does not reveal to them what God is but what that person wants to believe about God.  This is the same view they have about me and anyone else they are around.  Just as people can reject or accept God’s true nature so they can reject or accept our true nature.  Look at verse four in this light then, and ask yourself which group do you associate yourself with, deceitful men or men of true

In I Samuel 12:20-25 Samuel gives the children of Israel the desire of their heart, a king.  They recognized this as an act of adding to their sins, but ask Samuel to pray for them so that they might not die.  Samuel’s answer was “Do not fear.  You have committed all this evil, yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart.”   David was not even born when Samuel gave this warning to the children of Israel and when he stepped aside and let them, have Saul as their king.  After Saul’s failure to follow the Lord and his ways, the Lord rejected him.   I Samuel 15:30 “Then he said “I have sinned, but please honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel and go back with me, that I may worship the Lord your God” illustrates the true abandonment of Saul’s association with God and God’s association with Saul.  David did not want this abandonment.  To David the words of Samuel from the past “Only fear the Lord and serve Him in truth with all your heart, for consider what great things He has done for you”, became the guiding light to the blameless walk that David led.

by

Psalm 21

day beginnningThe king shall joy in thy strength, O Lord; and in thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice!  Thou hast given him his heart’s desire, and hast not withholden the request of his lips. Selah.  For thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness: thou settest a crown of pure gold on his head.  He asked life of thee, and thou gavest it him, even length of days for ever and ever.  His glory is great in thy salvation: honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him.  For thou hast made him most blessed for ever: thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy countenance.  For the king trusteth in the Lord, and through the mercy of the most High he shall not be moved.  Thine hand shall find out all thine enemies: thy right hand shall find out those that hate thee. Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger: the Lord shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them.  Their fruit shalt thou destroy from the earth, and their seed from among the children of men.  For they intended evil against thee: they imagined a mischievous device, which they are not able to perform.  Therefore shalt thou make them turn their back, when thou shalt make ready thine arrows upon thy strings against the face of them.  Be thou exalted, Lord, in thine own strength: so will we sing and praise thy power.

As I study this psalm I can’t help but see this as a psalm that refers to David’s reign as well as the coming reign of Christ.  As I read the first six verses I can picture David’s kingdom as it become one of the most powerful nations on the earth during this period of history.  However, the last seven verses seem to point to a coming King, one who will destroy the enemies of God.  This King is Christ.  In Deuteronomy 17 we are given instructions for a King to follow.  Verses eighteen through twenty reads:

And it shall be, when he sits upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book, out of that which is before the priests the Levites: and it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life; that he may learn to fear Jehovah his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them; that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left: to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children, in the midst of Israel.

As we study these verses we realized that knowledge of the law of the Lord and the fear of the Lord are key to how a king rules.

As I read verse ten of this Psalm I must reflect on Peters words concerning the latter days (the times that we are living in today).   Verse ten states “you will destroy their descendants from the earth”.  In studying the scripture I realized that this had already happened once before in the history of mankind.  The Great Flood of Genesis.  In II Peter chapter three Peter writes about the last days in which men deny that this great flood ever happened.  He gives us two characteristics of the mockers that Christians will face during these times.

The first characteristic is they walk after their own lust.  As I reflect on the phrase “walking after one’s own lust” I ask myself “why is this an issue?”. Peter wrote this epistle to stir up the minds on the believers.  He wrote this epistle to remind them of the message of the gospel.  In fact in verses fifteen and sixteen of chapter three he reminds them that Paul wrote to them in words that were sometimes hard to understand the salvation of the Lord.  As I reflect on Paul’s writings about the gospel, the resurrection of Christ and our future resurrection I gain a new perceptive of the message of the gospel.   Paul states in I Corinthians 15:12-19

Now if Christ is preached that he hath been raised from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?  But if there is no resurrection of the dead, neither hath Christ been raised: and if Christ hath not been raised, then is our preaching vain, your faith also is vain.  Yea, we are found false witnesses of God; because we witnessed of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead are not raised.  For if the dead are not raised, neither hath Christ been raised: and if Christ hath not been raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also that are fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have only hoped in Christ in this life, we are of all men most pitiable.

In other words if the message of the gospel was just to make the world a better place to live in and that this life we are living really is all there is then I am preaching the wrong message.  If my message does not focus on gaining eternal life with God, but just on how to make the world a better place to live; then why would people give up walking after their own lust?  They would not.  If all I had hope for in this life then I would be the Lord of my life and live my life for my pleasures only.  So until a man looks at the eternal value of their life the message of the gospel really has no meaning to him.

The second characteristic is they deny the Word of God.  They question the Word and the promises found in the Word.  They deny the creation, the flood, the call of Abraham, the law, the prophets and the ministry of Christ.  What is so sad about questioning God’s Word is that most believers do not even read it.  Yes it is true that the Word of God is often abused by many and twisted to support their own personal belief system; however that does not justified holding out the Word of God in your life.  You have the same freedom as others to study the Word.  You have as much access to the Word of God as any one else.  So as I look at the second characteristic of the latter days I must ask the question “what do you think of God’s Word?”.  Do you stand on the Word of God?  And what do you think about God’s son the King (Christ) in relationship to how you live your life?  Read Psalms 22 and study how He suffered for us when he came the first time to earth and then read Psalms 2 to see how he will reign the second time he comes to the earth.

by

Psalm 16

River

Keep me safe, my God, for in you I take refuge.  I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.”  I say of the holy people who are in the land,  “They are the noble ones in whom is all my delight.”  Those who run after other gods will suffer more and more.  I will not pour out libations of blood to such gods  or take up their names on my lips.  Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup;  you make my lot secure.  The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;  surely I have a delightful inheritance.  I will praise the Lord, who counsels me;  even at night my heart instructs me.  I keep my eyes always on the Lord.  With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.  Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;  my body also will rest secure,  because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,  nor will you let your faithful one see decay.   You make known to me the path of life;  you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

As I look at verse five, I can not help but look back to the Luke 22: 42 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done”. Are we able to pray the same prayer as our Lord prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane?   We can, once we realized that God has made our lot secure. As I travel this journey that the Lord has prepared for me I must look to these verses as coming from the heart and life of King David. For as he wrote of Christ in his psalms he also wrote words that can help us develop a closer walk with God.

This psalms helps us realized that God is our refuge and our delight. He does assign to us our portion in life and the cup we are to bear. Again we are warned in this psalm not to follow after other Gods, or those who seek fellowship with those who follow other gods. God counsels us and instructs us day and night. As long as we seek him in his word we will know he will lead us in the right path. Surely the grave is not our destiny, but being in his presence with eternal pleasures.

As you read this psalm take a look at your epistemology. Ask yourself this question “What is knowledge?”. Verse eleven points out the fact that the psalmist realized that his knowledge came from God and it is God who has made known to him the path of life. This is the knowledge that the psalmist describes in Psalm One.  When one start studying epistemology the first two questions that must be answered are: what is knowledge and how is knowledge acquired.  To the psalmist (as we will see in Psalm nineteen) knowledge is the work of God’s hand.  By studying nature knowledge is revealed to us.  However to acquire knowledge God has given to us  his written Word (law, statutes, precepts, commands, and ordinances) to understand his creation. 

Verse ten “because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay” was used by Peter in Act 2:27 in his message on the day of Pentecost as verses that David referred to the suffering and resurrection of Christ.

In verse eleven David writes “You have made known to me the path of life”. As I grow in my faith daily I realize that it is God who seeks after me and not me seeking God. We have a way of wanting to stray away from God, but in his loving kindness he brings us back to him. As we travel along on our journey here on earth we like the Psalmist must realize that God is the shepherd that guides us along this path of life. As we walk along this path we can have joy, but this joy is in knowing that God’s presence is with us. This psalm illustrates our walk on earth with God. Let each verse speak to you as it did to David. Remember each person’s walk with God is unique, however they all share the characteristics of the walk that this psalm describes.

As I was reading this week The Faith of George W. Bush by Stephen Mansfield I could not help but see verse eleven play out in his life.  Stephen Mansfield gives us the great foundations of George W Bush’s faith by devoting the first two chapters on the faith of his parents and grandparents.  Just as Paul praises the unfeigned faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and then in your mother Eunice Stephen Mansfield gives the same praise to George W Bush’s parents and grandparents.  Yet his way of  living his faith was different.  His statement at the end of chapter two about how George W Bush’s  faith was acquired reveals a lot about how he lives out his faith.

“But the day will come when all of the faith that has been planted in him – from childhood prayers to Presbyterian creeds, from small-town Christian culture to the Christ known in an Episcopal service – will flower to become the ruling principle of his life.  But it is the desert he will know before this flowering that will make it all the sweeter when it comes.”

As I study the psalms as well as the lives of the great heroes of faith both from the Bible and those that have lived from early church history to the present I can see a common thread that they all have shared.  That thread is a desert experience, a time when their faith was tested and God did not seem to be present.  It is in times like these that all believers must pray a psalm like this psalm to give us strength to get through our desert experience

by

Psalms 11

IMG_4046In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain? For, lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart.  If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?  The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord‘s throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men.  The Lord trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.  Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup.  For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright.

.

Who do you place your faith in: God, man, or self. Here the psalmist tells the reader that his faith is in God so why should he flee from his problems. So when the wicked attach the righteous and the very truths that the righteous base their faith upon are tested; what actions should the righteous take?  Simply put your faith in God and purse a life of righteousness with God.  This task is not as easy as it seems.  Walking with the Lord and trusting in Him only is a difficult task for a worldly person.  We must look at our walk of faith and compare it to a child learning how to walk.  They stumble a lot along the way in this learning process.  However as the coffee table or couch provides the extra support a child needs in the process of learning how to walk, so must a young believer learn to hold on to the Word of God when times of temptations come into his life.  Look to Matthew chapter four and see how this is the same principle that Christ applied when he was tempted (tested) by Satan in the wilderness.   Having raised seven children and watching them learning how to walk I have noticed that the process that a child goes through to reach the goal of walking is similar to the process that a Christian goes through in learning how to live by faith.  A child first learns to roll over, then the process of lifting up the head, followed by scooting, followed by crawling and then pulling themselves up to walk while holding on to something.  However, once a child finally let’s go and start taking the first few steps he usually falls.  Yet, these falls become fewer and fewer until the child can walk on his own.  And finally the walking becomes running and the child starts his process of exploring the world around him.  Our walk of faith is also like this.  The more we read and study God’s Word the more His thoughts become our thoughts as we hid His Word in our heart.  So where the world questions our faith our reply to the world can be just like Christ’s reply was to Satan in the Wilderness “but it is written”.

by

Psalm 6: 1-3

Tallapossa 4O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. Have mercy upon me, O Lord; for I am weak: O Lord, heal me; for my bones are vexed.  My soul is also sore vexed: but thou, O Lord, how long?

In his devotional My Utmost for His Highest for April 2, 2009 Oswald Chambers  writes “The lasting characteristic of a spiritual man is the ability to understand correctly the meaning of the Lord Jesus Christ in his life, and the ability to explain the purposes of God to others.” as the spiritual insight that we need to portray in our daily walk.  This psalm is an example of those events that take place in our life in which we know God, but we can not grasp an understanding on how God is using those events in our life at that moment to shape us for his purpose.

In this psalm David knows the Lord.  He knows of God’s anger and discipline and he knows of his unfailing love.  He had witness how God had used Saul to united Israel as a nation, but also witness how God had deserted Saul when he refused to obey God.  He saw the pain and suffering that Saul went through when the Spirit of the Lord left Saul.  He also saw the type of person that Saul became when he forsook the Lord’s way and pursued his own path.  However, he also saw how much pain and suffering Saul could inflict on others.  Events such as when Saul had Doeg the Edomite kill eighty-five members of the priest family were hard for David to grasp when it came to understanding God intervention in the affairs of man.

 

As I study the issues that David must have faced in this psalm and apply it to the issues that I face I realize that David is wrestling with gaining an understanding of the events surrounding him.  The more I study the psalms the more I realize that David was writing his psalms to help him understand the nature and attributes of God.  David knew that God was in control, however, he also realized that evil existed in the world and that this evil was godless.  Godliness and godlessness can not exist together.  Therein lies the conflict that we see in the world today, those who walk in the way of the righteous and those who opposes the righteous way of God.   The major issue that I see today is that many believers strive to make a stand against all unrighteous that they see exist all around them and take matters into their our hands, instead of leaving it to God.  We should become like David and become obsessed with the pursue of knowing God and living a blameless life.  If we truly believe like David; then we like him, will know that the four results of verses nine and ten will take place.

 The LORD has heard my cry for mercy the LORD accepts my prayer. All my enemies will be ashamed and dismayed they will turn back in sudden disgrace 

Living a blameless life is different then living a perfect life.  One of the earliest struggles that I faced as a Christian was striving for human perfection.  Paul also gives us an example of his struggle with living a life of perfection in Philippians chapter three.  Paul purpose changed from striving to live a life of perfection to knowing God and the power of his resurrection.  He sought the fellowship of Christ suffering and being made conformable unto God’s nature.  Oswald Chambers summarizes Christian perfection in his devotional from December 2 as “Christian perfection is not, and never can be, human perfection. Christian perfection is the perfection of a relationship with God that shows itself to be true even amid the seemingly unimportant aspects of human life.”   So as we go through times in our life that we can not understand God’s leading look at them as a time that God is making us conformable unto His nature

by

Daily Living

cherry grove pierThe making of New Year Resolutions are a way we reflect back on last year and look forward to the new and upcoming new year to make changes to improve our life. However, there is one resolution that we should make early in our life and should strive to keep it forever. Solomon’s Ecclesiastes was written to explore the purpose of man’s life on this earth. It is interesting that he starts with the words “vanity of vanities, all is vanity” and continues this theme throughout the entire book. He explores every aspect of life and concludes all is vanity. Solomon sums up Ecclesiastes with these verses from chapter twelve “Remember also thy Creator in the days of thy youth, before the evil days come, and the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them (Ecclesiastes 12:1). And furthermore, my son be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh. This is the end of the matter; all hath been heard: fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man (Ecclesiastes 12:12-13).   So how do I pursue life and enjoy this gift of life that God has given me so that at the end of my life these words (I have no pleasure in them) will not be my words.

So as I begin this New Year my one and only New Year Resolution is to remember my Creator. For I am no longer in my youth, but as an old man I can reflect back and see how much my Creator has cared for me. This is because in my youth I learned the words of Psalms 23 that sums up how we should live our life are the Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want for He leads me. Yes I did stray, but He never forsakes me. He was always there to deliver me out of the situations caused by my straying.