Testimonies

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The Blessed Man, Psalm 1:1-3 Ed Goyette

I have a question for you. Assuming the mental and physical effort are the same, which is easier, something you want to do or something you do not want to do? Why? Just think about that for a bit. Psalm 1:1-2 says:
“Blessed is the man who has never walked in the counsel of the wicked nor stood in the path of sinners nor sat in the seat of scorners, but his delight is in the law of Jehovah and in His law he meditates day and night.”
When I was younger I not only walked in the counsel of the ungodly and on the path of sin, I was one of the scornful. I grew up with few friends, feeling unaccepted and unacceptable. Cynicism and depression grew with what I saw as a pointless life. As for religion, My family never darkened a church door, and though I believed there had to be some kind of supreme creator, I didn’t think any one religion or philosophy had a corner on truth.
Things seemed to look up after high school. I began studying electronics and met Karen, whom I later married. However, the bottled up conflicts inside me kept coming out in various ways. I still had difficulty getting along with others, and because of this I had a hard time holding a job. Relations with Karen’s family were strained at best.
About this time Karen’s mom was doing a local newspaper column about their lake community and had attended the dedication of a new church building. There they first heard, though they had been church goers, that man by desiring his own way rather than God’s alienated himself from God bringing uncertainty, death and God’s judgment upon him (Romans 3:9-18; 6:23). But God, wanting to show mercy, declared amnesty for all those who would come to Him on His terms (John 3:16; 1 Peter 2:7-10).
Offended at first, they subsequently believed. This had little effect on my attitudes. I told the minister there that I thought most preachers were a bunch of lying hypocrites, devils in the pulpit, capitalizing on the faith and gullibility of the people. How Karen put up with me through all this was amazing. She even coerced me into attending the church’s evening services. It was either that or no Sunday date, but I never really listened or cared.
One time, as the preacher was going on about something, I was thinking up all kinds of great questions to put to her to show that there was nothing to any of this. It was then that something in the sermon peaked my interest and in the course of the rest of the message, every question I was thinking was answered in the order I was thinking them and with the kind of answers that fit so well you just know they’re right. At that moment a little voice went off in my head saying, “Ok wise guy, what do you have to say now?” The skids had been knocked out from under me. I was so shaken, that when the preacher called for testimonies I rose, almost involuntarily, and thanked God for answering all the questions I ever had. You should have seen his and Karen’s faces! However, I struggled with this for another two weeks.
Finally, as I was getting ready for a date, it hit me that it was either true or not and I had to make up my mind. I did and came to know through experience the peace that comes from knowing that I had been forgiven by God and made right with Him. Slowly those inner conflicts settled as God’s Spirit worked. Karen and I married and had children. I worked for a good company for thirty years and have studied and taught the Bible for most of that time.
I am still nowhere near perfect. The scars and effects of my former life still plague me to some extent, but God and I are working through them together. Because of Christ’s sacrifice on my behalf, I have a whole life today. I don’t just know about Him, I know Him, not because I’m good, but because He’s good.
Remember the question I asked at the beginning? No mater how hard you try to be good you will fail at some point because human nature tends toward sin. Sin is not just the bad things we do; those are only the symptoms of sin. The desire to run our lives our way, regardless of what God says, is the true nature of what sin is and irrevocably leads to all our other ills. It’s not enough to come to Him because you think you have to. Without the desire to live for Him that He Himself gives us, we will fail. He wants you to give yourself to Him as you are, looking to Him to heal you from the effects of sin. A stable, full life will grow out of a consistent regard for God’s truths and a desire for God Himself.

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