The word ‘keep’ in Hebrews means to observe, heed, and guard. Joshua 1:8 says to observe to do. James 1:22-25 encourages us to be hearers and doers. I checked Psalm 119 to see how many times ‘to keep’ His word was used. 21. Seven is the number of completion times three.

Psalm 119:4 says, “You have commanded us to keep Your precepts diligently.” All Scripture is given by the inspiration of God according to 2 Timothy 3:16 ~ God-breathed truths. It is only as we observe to do that His truth becomes our experience.

Proverbs 4:23 says to keep our heart with all diligence. Our ‘keeping’ is only successful when we hide His word in our heart and put it into practice. Experiential truth inculcates throughout our thought processes. 1 John 2:6 says, “He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.” Living word inside affects the outside.

Years ago the Holy Spirit led me to read the book of Haggai every day for 30 days. It is only two chapters long. The resounding call from chapter one is to consider your ways. For several days I have been meditating on Psalm 119:59-60.

It says, “I thought about my ways, and turned my feet to Your testimonies. I made haste, and did not delay to keep Your commandments.” In Haggai they did not keep God’s commandment to rebuild the Lord’s house, and there were dire consequences.

Have you thought about your ways lately? I did when I first started to meditate on verse 59. What am I doing that the Lord has not called me to do? The psalmist did an immediate course correction. Made haste and did not delay displays a character of diligence ~ being proactive and intentional.

Israel asked for a king. The Lord granted their request. He sent thunder and rain to destroy their wheat harvest, so that they would perceive their wickedness. In 1 Samuel 12:20 Samuel said, “…Do not fear. You have done all this wickedness; yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart.”

Verse 21 says, “And do not turn aside; for then you would go after empty things which cannot profit or deliver, for they are nothing.” We get derailed when we look to man. Psalm 1:1 says, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly…”

Jeremiah 17:7 says, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord.” Keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, will help us walk in a straight path. Fixed means that no outside distractions can pull us off course.

Psalm 119:49-50 says, “Remember the word to Your servant, upon which You have caused me to hope. This is my comfort in my affliction, for Your word has given me life.” Hope is the anchor of our soul. Hebrews 6:19.

It seems strange that the psalmist was asking the Lord to remember. The Lord knows all things. As I have been meditating on these two verses, I’m using ‘I remember’ to make it personal. 

I have a heart-book of memories of when the Lord stepped into seemingly impossible situations and gave me hope through His word ~ verses that still anchor me. Here is one that I love in Psalm 119:147. It says, “I rise before the dawning of the morning, and cry for help; I hope in Your word.”

Trusting hope is in the Lord alone. Psalm 62:5 says, “My soul, wait silently for God alone, for my expectation is from Him.” Don’t let your hope get derailed through misplacement.

There is a warning for us in Galatians 5:13. It says, “For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”

Years ago there was a “grace” doctrine that destroyed those who bit satan’s bait. It said that grace allowed you to do anything you desired. That is not what Romans 6:14 said. It has to be read and applied in context.

Verse 15 says, “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?” 

The path of obedience is strewn with grace. We are never freer than when we are in the center of God’s will. Jesus set us free for eternity. John 4:34. Luke 22:42. John 6:38-40.

Like James 1:23 says, if we are only a hearer and not a doer, then it is like looking in a mirror and walking away. It is a momentary reflection. The Lord has designed His word to dwell in our hearts so that we won’t sin against Him.

Colossians 3:16 says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”

2 Timothy 3:16 says that Scripture is given to us for course correction ~ His word leads us into His righteousness (conforming our thoughts, purpose, and actions to His will and ways). It is His experiential truth that keeps us free ~ truth implanted in our hearts that changed our thought processes. John 8:31-32. Truth seeded into our heart will bear fruit that glorifies Him.

Psalm 119:45 says, “I will walk at liberty, for I seek Your precepts.” We are called to freedom. John 8:36 says, “Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” When we seek to walk in the footprints of His word, we will remain free.

It is when we veer off track, that we get ensnared. Off track we are subject to deception ~ fiery dart lies penetrate and lodge in our thought processes. When we look intently into His word, James 1:25 laid out a truth for us to follow.

It says, “But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.” We can look intently, but unless we apply what we saw, and continue in it, we will forget.

I love Ephesians 1:11. It is one of my anchor verses. It helps to secure me when I fall into a new trial. “…being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will.” Our trials have an eternal purpose. What the Lord allows is being worked into our lives like a potter works water into clay.

Romans 9:20 says, “But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, Why have you made me like this?” Have you ever questioned God from your crucible trial?

Our trials purposely put us on display. Ephesians 3:10-11 says, “To the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.” His purpose ~ always at work.

Paul’s radical conversion set him on the pathway to go through hard trials. Acts 9:16 was the Lord’s words to Ananias. It says, “For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake.”

If you need a refresher course of his life, I encourage you to read 2 Corinthians 11:23-33. 2 Corinthians 4:10 says, “Always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.”

Acts 20:22-23 gives us a glimpse of Paul being chained to God’s purpose. It says, “…I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem…the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that chains and tribulations await me.”

He was warned by others. Folks pleaded with him, weeping, begging him not to go. Acts 21:13 says, “…For I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”

2 Timothy 1:9 says, “Who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.”

When did He chose us? Ephesians 1:4 says, “Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.” Titus 1:2 says, “In hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began.”

Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”  Psalm 119:89-90 says, “Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven. Your faithfulness endures to all generations; You established the earth, and it abides.”

Where is your hope? In tumultuous times, Jeremiah recorded crucible words that are timeless. Lamentations 3:22-23 says, “…His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.”