A Man In Full

Lord, who may abide in Your tabernacle?

Who may dwell in Your holy mountain?

He who walks blamelessly and does what is right

and speaks truth in his heart... —Psalm 15:1

 

David's question has to do with process rather than means. Put another way, this isn't what we bring to the table (or to the mountain), but what God is  bringing to us, so that we, by His grace, may become "fit for the Kingdom of God," and dwell with him on his holy hill forever. 

 

And what is God bringing to us? Integrity—integration, wholesome attitudes and actions existing in complete concert with one another. He's turning us into men and women that ring true, that are truthful, trustworthy, loving, honest, honorable, friendly, faithful, generous, gentle, tranquil and strong, through and through (15:2-5). 

 

That's one reason I follow Jesus. Not because I'm deeply religious, but because God is determined to make me into the kind of man I've always wanted to be—a man in full.

 

I to myself have neither power nor worth,

Patience nor love, nor anything right good;

My soul is a poor land, plenteous in dearth—

Here blades of grass, there a small herb for food—

A nothing that would be something if it could;

But if obedience, Lord, in me do grow,

I shall one day be better than I know. —George MacDonald 

 

David Roper

2.1.21