A Young Person's Life of Purity
Passage to be read: Psalm 119: 9 - 16
How can a young person live a pure life?
By obeying your word.
With all my heart I try to obey you.
Don't let me break your commands.
I have taken your words to heart so I would not sin against you.
(Psalm 119: 9-11)
It is the summer of life. Things around us are colourful, beautiful, energetic, inspiring, motivational and many a time pleasing and pleasure-filled. Behind such a colourful backdrop, there are plenty of challenges and obstacles too. The natural metabolism and the chemistry of the body, the educational and employment goals, the availability of everything online and the life-changing decisions made during this season.
Through all these channels of challenges, a young life has to survive, live and see the fulfillment in realising that it has been a fruitful season of youthfulness. But to live through all these and to survive until the end, purity matters! Living a young life of purity is one of the greatest challenges. A young person's purity in everything she or he does is important. But let us accept the reality that it is not an easy walk to be pure. And this struggle is reflected in the psalm we have read today.
The Psalmist, indirectly, accepts that being pure as a young person is not possible within the human capabilities. With only the human conditions and controls, it was difficult for the Psalmist to live a pure life. The human faculties were not sufficient to help through the struggle. So he presents the answer as the question itself. He is searching for the answers to help a young person sail through, without drowning into these deep waters of impurity. And, he finds his answers.
Obeying God's word with all your heart is the first step towards living a young life of purity. Not just in theory, not just in reading and listening, but also in cracked-down practical life of every morning, noon, evening and night, till every atom of your life is dealt with. And this obedience to God's word is not because to gain something out of it, not to be smart, but because you wish to obey God's word with all your heart. With every thought and yearning in your heart, you have to abide; you have to seek for every possible step to obey God's word. The Psalmist says "with all my heart I try to obey you" (Psalm 119: 10).
Not only for the big things, but also for the very little parts of your life; let us learn to obey God's word. And that is the first step towards living our youthful life with purity. Once we have learned to follow God's word and obey them with all our heart, everything else sets in place; things around us become wonderful and the greatest ever gift of doing so is, you save your youthfulness with purity. A little reason why many of us would have still slipped in this challenging walk, even though we had tried obeying God's word, is because we did not do that with all our heart. Somewhere, in the corner of your heart, there was a thought that that was an obstacle and that hindered you in allowing God's word to fill your heart. And, you struggled to keep your purity.
Depend on God for the strength to stand against and not on your own strength. It is such a great thing to realize that the Psalmist humbles himself before the Lord, and accepts that his human capabilities are not at all sufficient to surf through the waves. Even though he had decided to obey God's word with all his heart, he admits that his human strength will never be sufficient for him to put things into practice. He says, "don't let me break your commands" (Psalm 119: 10). He entirely depends on God for this strength. The psalmist is fearful that he may overstep the limits, and admits that only God's strength can help him to stay within the borders of purity.
It is very important that we depend on God for putting things into practice. Even though we have learned and understood God's word, and though we have decided to obey the words with all our heart, the real challenge arises when we face the moment; the moment where we need to use God's word that is growing in our hearts. And our human strength is not enough for us to face that moment. And God's strength helps us. Let us learn to pause for a moment in such circumstances and ask God for His help. God will, indeed, help us to overcome with His greatest strength.
The above two are the secrets that the Psalmist shares with us. Obey God's word with all your heart and depend on Him for the strength. The rest of the story is a colourful, beautiful, energetic, inspiring, motivational and many a times pleasing and pleasure-filled season of youth, even behind the backdrop of the youth-stage.
I pray that God will help us to obey His word with all our hearts. I also pray that we will learn to depend on Him to live a life that safeguards God's words even at the toughest and most challenging moments of life. Let us, together, live a life of faith and purity. Let us live an life of example that is also pleasing in God's sight.
May God bless you.
Yours in Christ,
