A Couple Verses

This is a little rough and I'm sitting here with a couple mental blocks but I'll post anyway. There are two verses that I got to thinking on more and more this evening:

Psalm 40:17 ~ But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me: thou art my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God.

I was reading a friend's blog earlier this week and this verse was in one of the chapters that he recommended to his readers. I skimmed the chapters and read a number of the verses in each that I had highlighted in my Bible. Verse 17 is not highlighted but it caught my eye. It is a wonderful reminder and promise of who God is.

“But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me…” I didn’t ask God to think upon me, to love me, yet He loved me before I ever knew of Him and determined to give Himself for me. I have nothing in and of myself to commend myself to God. I have done nothing to encourage or deserve His thoughts let alone His love. What a God! I am thankful that God didn’t wait for me to love Him first. It doesn’t end there! I can look to God for help and deliverance from whatever I am facing! And I think this is where the second verse comes in because if this second verse isn’t integrated into our lives, the second part of Psalm 40:17 won’t happen on our end because we will crumble.

Matthew 4:4 ~ But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

What does this mean in practicality? How does this look in day-to-day life? I think the following excerpt from the book Last Day Events helps to illustrate this.

Enoch walked with God three hundred years previous to his translation to heaven, and the state of the world was not then more favorable for the perfection of Christian character than it is today. And how did Enoch walk with God? He educated his mind and heart to ever feel that he was in the presence of God, and when in perplexity his prayers would ascend to God to keep him. {LDE 71.1}

He refused to take any course that would offend his God. He kept the Lord continually before him. He would pray, "Teach me Thy way, that I may not err. What is Thy pleasure concerning me? What shall I do to honor Thee, my God?" Thus he was constantly shaping his way and course in accordance with God's commandments, and he had perfect confidence and trust in his heavenly Father, that He would help him. He had no thought or will of his own. It was all submerged in the will of his Father. {LDE 71.2}

Now Enoch was a representative of those who will be upon the earth when Christ shall come, who will be translated to heaven without seeing death.--1SAT 32 (1886). {LDE 71.3}

Enoch had temptations as well as we. He was surrounded with society no more friendly to righteousness than is that which surrounds us. The atmosphere he breathed was tainted with sin and corruption the same as ours, yet he lived a life of holiness. He was unsullied with the prevailing sins of the age in which he lived. So may we remain pure and uncorrupted.--2T 122 (1868). {LDE 71.4}

Let us remember God's love for us and accept it by walking with Him this week by living (in every aspect of life) by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.