Keeping Your Way Pure

How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to Your word. [Ps 119:9]

The battle for purity is difficult. Temptations abound. Sexual sin is rampant. Lying is common place. Violence is everywhere. There are so many pitfalls to avoid, so many snares to hurdle, and so many luring and seductive pleasures to flee like drink, drugs, and sex.

How is a young man or young woman supposed to navigate these treacherous waters without shipwrecking their faith? Television, the internet, and Netflix are formidable foes. Skimpy skirts and predator guys abound. Satan disguises himself as an angel of light and many times we never see what hit us when we sin.

If you really want to keep your way pure, holy, and righteous the way to do so is according to the word. Verse 11 of the same chapter states, Your word I have hidden in my heart that I may not sin against You. As we read, study, meditate, memorize, and apply the scripture to our lives we can traverse the path of purity. If we keep the scriptures as a high priority in our lives and the standard for how to live and make decisions we can remain holy by God's supernatural enabling.

God's church is blemished because of the hypocrisy that abounds. It is easy to sing "Blessed Be The Name" or "Blessed Assurance" at church and then curse like a sailor at home, work, school, and the locker room. If you watch and listen to profanity it will infiltrate your thoughts and eventually roll off the tongue. Avoid every appearance of evil the Bible commands. We can preach True Love Waits but too many young men and young men are not keeping their zippers zipped and their skirts down. The church is stained with sin. The path to purity is the path of taking major doses of scriptural medicine accompanied by the empowering of the Holy Spirit.

One summer in college I spent the summer working construction and worked eight hours a day six days a week among some very savory characters. I heard every form of profanity imaginable and before the summer ended those vile words had lodged in my mind. Though I did not say them I certainly did think them. When I became frustrated I would think horrible words and thoughts.

That happens all over the church. The only way to combat this is to fill our hearts and minds with more truth from the Bible. When we keep our focus there, draw our strength from there, and practice what we read we can live pure lives. Will you take the path of least resistance and give into sin or will fight for purity. Saturate your mind and heart with truth from God's word.