In Psalms 119, the psalmist asks a question of the heavenly Father — Yahuwah Elohim [the Hebrew name for the LORD God].
A life of purity is a beautiful and honourable life! A life of purity is a healthy, thriving, flourishing life, one that promises much fruitfulness.
Sadly, ‘the world’ will tell you that a life of purity is a dream, a fantasy – it’s impossible.
And yes, if you fall victim to ‘loving the world and the things in the world’ (1John 2:15-17), then purity is a fantasy.
But Father God gives an immediate answer to the question:
Yahuwah Elohim tells us The Way! He tells us how a young person can live a life of purity: by obeying His written Word!
An Eternal Design
Each one of us are created in the image of our Creator, Yahuwah Elohim [the LORD God]. (Genesis 1:27) Yahuwah created us according to an eternal design! If we choose to accept His design, and follow His instructions and guidelines [the Bible], then, even in the midst of trials and afflictions, Father will bless us and guide us by His Holy Spirit (Psalms 15:1-2; Psalms 128:1).
Yahuwah promises us that things will be well with those who honour Him with their trust and obedience (see Deuteronomy 28:1-14)! In other words, we will be eternally “blessed”. . .
These verses, and others in Psalms 119, are wonderful clues for helping us to be a mature and honourable person. Psalms 119 also gives us warnings on how to avoid the pitfalls of shame, misery, and disgrace. I would encourage you to read through Psalms 119, and look for those prayers that give insights on living a life of purity. Here are just two of such prayers:
Maintaining A Pure Life – Set Apart For a Special Purpose
A pure and clean life is the foundation of a life that is mature and respectable. Walking in purity is to maintain a ‘set-apart-ness‘ from the ways of this world. A life of purity is to be set apart for a special purpose, set-apart as one of God’s special vessels of honour! When we seek to live before God by preserving our purity, then we will have a clear conscience that is free from misery and shame.
But we need the heavenly Father’s help!! We cannot walk in purity in our own strength! We need to look to Yahuwah [the LORD] and pray for His salvation, His strength and grace. As we saw in The Pathway of Purity, we must rely on God, sometimes moment by moment, to help us maintain a pure life, help us to maintain a clean life that avoids sinful, perverted behaviours and words. We must cry out to our heavenly Father for His guidance and protection, to help us do what may seem impossible!
In order for a young person to live a pure life it is essential to have a daily prayer time with the heavenly Father, talking to Him about our most intimate concerns — talking to Him about the frustrations and temptations we all face! This world’s enticements and pleasures are very attractive to young people and Yahuwah knows this. That is why, over and over, Yahuwah warns us:
Do not be taken in by the earthly, sensual, and temporary sinful pleasures of this world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Such things are defiling, corrupt, and will only hijack our innocence. (1John 2:15-17; Job 20:4-5; Titus 3:3; James 3:14-16).
“There can be no true pleasure in sin, for there is always bitterness in the end.” — John Gill
To live a life of purity, we must fight the good fight of faith! We must be diligent to spend time in prayer every day to seek the help of the Holy Spirit to protect us and strengthen us against the sensual, perverted lusts that this world repeatedly throws at us. We must seek Father’s help to remain loyal to Him and to His Word, even when we walk, for a season, through ‘the valley of the shadow of death’ (see Psalms 23).
“Our love should be reserved for God; and not thrown away on the ways of this world. If our love of the world prevails then our love for God dwindles and decays.” — Matthew Henry
Learning to Be Honest – Speaking Truth in Our Heart
Being young and energetic is a great blessing that is given to us by our Creator. He delights in our enthusiasm. Father God puts it on the hearts of the young to want the best, and to eagerly search out what is good and truthful.
But finding The Way of Truth and thus beginning to live a life of purity must first begin with having the right attitude within ourselves. If we are not truthful with ourselves, then we are easily led into deception and can violate our good conscience.
One of the most important ways we can begin to live a life of purity is to make the decision to learn to be honest with ourselves, as Yahuwah requires of us:
These and many other Scripture passages teach us that Father God is very interested in our commitment to maintain our inner honesty!
I use the phrase ‘learn to be honest with ourselves’ because dis-honesty within ourselves is very common. Often, without realizing it, we are not inwardly honest with ourselves about our own behaviour.
Even though we may want to do what is good and truthful, we struggle to do the right thing. When we want to do what is right, many times “evil lies close at hand” (see Romans 7:18-21), which is why every one of us have given in to sinful actions, whether small ones or big ones.
Yet, all of us have a tendency to cover up our humiliation, our confusion, and the truth of our faults and sins. Sadly, we are masters at denying and covering up our faults, blunders, and sins. We are masters at pretending that nothing is amiss, pretending that we are confident and secure about our condition. However, many times we simply do not want to face the truth about ourselves. It is too painful.
But if we do not recognize the truth about ourselves, and within our own thoughts, then we can become deluded and deceived, which results in closing our eyes to seeking truth in many other areas. But if we decide to honestly be obedient to Yahuwah’s Word, then our understanding of many truths will begin to be enlightened (Psalm 19:8).
It takes courage to be honest with ourselves within our own thought patterns. It takes courage to decide to not cover up our faults and sins. It takes courage to confess our faults and sins to God, and seek Father’s forgiveness by the blood of His Son, and then begin to walk in daily repentance (Proverbs 28:13; Colossians 1:13-14; 1John 1:9).
These courageous things are part of learning to practice speaking the truth about ourselves within our own heart.
A Personal Example
I know firsthand what it means to not be honest within my heart about my own behaviour.
When I was in high school as a young teenager, I was enrolled in a drama class. At the time, it was great fun and I made lots of friends. When the next semester came around and it was time to choose my new classes, I debated within myself about going to the next level in the drama class.
Something happened to me at that moment of decision – I think it was like an epiphany. As I thought about doing more drama skits and plays, I was struck with the fact that the drama class was teaching me to pretend — to pretend I was someone other than who I actually was. That thought really bothered and unsettled me.
The more I thought about all the pretending I was doing in my drama class, the more it frightened me. Why? Because I was already struggling with what kind of person I was. I was a typical young teenager trying to figure out my own confidence, my identity as a person, as a student, as a daughter, as a female.
I believe such struggles are typical for young people in this age of television, movies, and social media. There are tremendous pressures on young people to deny basic core identity issues — pressures to deny their place in their family, deny the wishes of their parents, and to go in search for something ‘more’, something ‘exciting’ — the ‘more exciting’ actually being the deceptive lies of the devil.
Thankfully, only by God’s mercy, I made a choice at that time, and I decided I did not want to learn to pretend to be someone that I was not. So I did not continue with the drama classes.
That decision was my first, major decision in Choosing The Way of Truth.
Of course, at that time, I was still far from the kind of honesty that God required of me. Pretending was a part of my inner thoughts, even outside of my drama class. Inwardly I was still very selfish, rebellious, and very ignorant. I was full of my own self-importance, and I thought I could figure out, on my own, the noble and exalted Pathway to Truth. How foolish I was!! (Jeremiah 17:9).
But that one little decision of mine back in high school was a baby step to move in the right direction. That one decision was a significant step in finding and loving the truth, which I more or less held to as I became an adult. And over the course of the next few years, after multiple blunders of trying to find the truth on my own (and barely surviving my quest for truth), I finally found what I was looking for, what I was thirsting for! I found the One who is the Living Truth (Ephesians 4:21)!
I had to learn the Very Hard Way that God’s Word — not my heart, not my feelings, not my closest friends, not my favorite public celebrity, but God’s WORD [the Bible] — is the only authoritative source for truth, direction, and counsel!
Satisfying My Thirsty Soul
As this blog title reveals, I was a ‘Thirsty Soul’ looking for pure, refreshing ‘Living Waters’. I was looking for a healing of my broken soul. As I have written in several other articles, I struggled greatly in my searchings for the truth. There were times when my searchings almost killed me.
Right after I graduated from college, I met a fellow student who was a Christian. I shared with her my struggles. She asked me, “Have you ever tried Jesus?” For me, that was an anointed question!! I thought to myself, “I’ve tried everything else. Why not try Jesus?”
So I began to read the Bible and some Christian-authored books. Within a few weeks, I had acknowledged the truth of who Jesus Christ [Yahushua Messiah, His Hebrew name] actually is, and I became Born-Again. Since that time, 45 years ago, I have been continually (with God’s help!!) choosing The Way of Truth, because now I know where to find truth — by searching God’s written Word [the Bible], and by praying for the Holy Spirit’s guidance (John 16:13-14).
“Men do not drop into the right way by chance; they must choose it, and continue to choose it, or they will soon wander from it. There must be study, consideration, deliberation, and earnest enquiry, or the way of truth will be missed. The commands of God must be set before us as the mark to aim at, the model to work by, the road to walk in.” — Charles Spurgeon
The Truth is IN Yahushua [Jesus]
With the help of the Holy Spirit, growing up and living a life of purity has become a driving conviction for me. I finally began to live a life that gave me peace and acceptance with who I was, and gave me respect about myself. By searching God’s Word, the truth I was desperately thirsting for began to be confirmed to me over and over:
Humility – The First Step
Choosing The Way of Truth is not always easy. All of us have layers of pretending within ourselves, keeping us dishonest and deceived about many things. As we saw in Lead Me in Your Truth, it is our own pride that keeps us bound up in deceptive spiritual darkness. This is why the Scriptures urge us continually to humble ourselves. This is the only way we can begin to see clearly, and to receive the truth that we are thirsting for.
Humility is the first step to safeguard ourselves against the darkness of pride and deception. True humility helps us begin to accept the truth about ourselves, no matter how ugly or painful (Psalms 25:9; Romans 12:3). True humility is the first step toward a pure heart and a right spirit (Psalms 51:10).
“Pride is a barrier to God working in us. God can only work His will in those who humble themselves. As long as we remain proud, arrogant, self-sufficient, and attempt to maintain our independence from God, then there is no way God can work in us.” — Derek Prince
A Life of Purity and Honour
The most important step for growing into the beauty of a life of purity; for growing into the treasure of a life of contentment, honour, and truthfulness — is learning obedience to our heavenly Father, by obeying His written Word (Psalms 119:9). As discussed in many articles on this site, obedience to Father’s written Word, along with His abundant, enabling grace from the Holy Spirit, are the central ingredients for being a child of God who is truly pleasing to our living, eternal, and Holy God.
In our journey with Messiah, our goal is to walk by faith, and to be enabled to endure to the end with gladness, respect, and honour. Our destination begins with . . .
looking to, praying to, and trusting in, our Creator (Yahuwah Elohim) to help us maintain a life of purity, and . . .
to help us make the daily decision to “Choose The Way of Truth” by learning Yahuwah’s written Word [the Bible] for ourselves, and by obeying His Word, in the small things and in the great things!
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Related Articles:
- Preparing Our Heart to Seek God
- How Can I Satisfy My Thirsty Soul?
- The Key to Gaining Understanding
- To This One Will I Look
- The Torah: The Key to Unlocking God’s Word
- Only The Wise Shall Understand
- Beware of the Wisdom of the Wise
- The Law of the LORD is Perfect
- The Royal Way
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Cold Waters to a Thirsty Soul
Cold Waters to a Thirsty Soul 
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