"Faith to Stay" -Too

"Nevertheless I am continually with thee: thou hast holden me by my right hand." (Psalms 73:23) Obviously, a little bit of distraction is not enough to break the relationship between us and God; not if you are truly one of His children! That is what I am getting from this verse; because it's not so much that he is saying, "I am continually with thee," as in, he is always standing with God; but it is more about the fact that God is the one who never leaves us unattended. He is not like one of our negligent parents that might leave us unattended; nor will He let us do what ever we want. He is always right there, watching and waiting, knowing ahead of time what we will do next. It's almost hard to think about, especially if you have been up to no good; because He knows where you have been, what you have been doing, and what you will do tomorrow. There is nothing hidden from Him! You can almost feel the childlike emotion in the illustration; holding Daddy's hand, while looking and longing for something that is wrong for you, while all the while, you know He is standing there saying, "No my son, that is not good for you." We don't fool God, because He knows what is in our hearts way before we even know it ourselves. You can see that great truth in the denial of Jesus by Peter. Peter thought that he was so strong, but Jesus knew differently; and no matter how hard Peter might have tried otherwise, he was what he was, and he was going to do what he was going to do. But the greatest truth in that story was not that Peter was just like you and I, but that he was restored! Heck, he was restored before he ever even fell! Jesus did not say, "If you are converted," He said, "And when you are converted." (Luke 22:32) We sometimes might loose sight of what is important, but we are never out of God's sight! The question is not "If you are His child," as if you have no knowledge of the truth; it is more about, "And because you are His child," so now you must act accordingly... "So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses. When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God." (Galatians 5:16-21) NLT