Alignment

 God shows us His ways that we might walk in them. It’s not so we find shortcuts or what our flesh considers easier paths, but that we come into alignment with His word and will to the point that any deviation from them is unnatural and deeply disturbing. We walk the narrow path of faith with diligence and determination, feeling the holy conviction we ought any time our foot slips off the path and we deviate from the course God has set out for us. When a man chooses to ignore the conviction, it becomes easier to do so with each iteration until they no longer acknowledge the voice or urging of God to return to their first love and rekindle the fire that once burned in their hearts.

When your mindset is right, and your will is in submission to His, when the desire of your heart is more of Him, then the tongue becomes easier to bridle. Although no man can tame the tongue, the tongue can be bridled, brought under control, and its poison effectively neutralized.

But how do we do that? How do we get our mindset right and our will in submission to Him? Knowing what we need to do is half the battle, after all. How to do what we need to do must be figured into the equation; otherwise, we will never be able to come to a definitive conclusion.

How we get to that point in our walk has everything to do with what the desire of our heart is. What do you desire from God? Is it more of Him or more of everything else but Him? Do you desire to know His way or to blaze your own trail, absent accountability or oversight from above?

Moses was a man to whom the Lord spoke as to a friend face to face. That is a high bar. Yes, I know, nowadays it’s old hat, with ladies teleporting to heaven via porta-potties and giving God their two cents on how He should run the universe, but even so, being able to have a conversation with God in such a matter is a big thing. He had found grace in God’s sight, and when he had the opportunity to ask God for anything, what he asked for should serve as a lesson to us all.

Exodus 33:13-14, “Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people. And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.’”

Moses understood that without knowing the way of the Lord, you cannot know Him. Nothing was more important to him than knowing God that he might find grace in His sight. Here is a man who was having a one-on-one conversation with the Almighty, who acknowledged that he’d found grace in the sight of the Lord, then asked that God show him His way so that he may find yet more grace in His sight.

How is it that people who are passionate about baseball can tell you the stats of every player on their favorite team? The same goes for people who are passionate about football, or soccer, or any other sport one might think of. Yet, those claiming to be passionate about God spend so little time in His presence that they feel the need to refresh His memory as to who they are when they approach Him again.

The best we can muster is a Hillsong once in a great while about how we love Him and need Him, but in truth, our actions tell a different tale. If you love Him, your singular desire ought to be to know His way that you might know Him. It’s not to ignore Him, discount His words, scoff at His commandments, and do your utmost to blend in with those of the world.

Suppose I said I loved my wife but didn’t live in the same house with her, went out with other women, preferred the company of anyone else except for her, disrespected her, and did not care about her feelings or opinion on anything. Would anyone believe that I loved my wife? Our actions must be commensurate with our declarations; otherwise, our declarations will be deemed fallacies based on the evidence our actions provide.

We can say we’re trying to bridle the tongue, but if we’re the first to run to hear gossip just so we could spread it, if we’re the first to speak up about something just to be contrarian, if we find ourselves in a war of words without knowing how we got into it, we’re not really doing what we said we were.

When we consciously, consistently, and committedly seek to walk in the way of the Lord, nature will no longer take its course; fire will no longer be the singular outcome because we will have been redeemed, transformed, and set upon a new path that seeks only to bring glory to the Father for all that He has done.

James isn’t painting a bleak picture but an accurate picture of an individual without God. He’s not exaggerating to get his point across; he is explaining what a heart, life, tongue, and individual without the presence and love of God descends into and ultimately becomes. Poison, joylessness, acrimony, and self-hate. A constant quest to fill the void, be less empty, have a purpose, and know true life. Life without God is no life at all. It’s just an illusion, a fantasy people talk themselves into believing about their predicament because they refuse to humble themselves and know peace.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.