Grapevine Ministries
Messages from the bible to uplift and encourage those that need a word from the Lord, to strengthen their faith. Ps Phillip Barker is an itinerant pastor in Perth, Western Australia.
Grapevine Ministries
Commit Your Way to the Lord
What does it truly mean to commit your way to the Lord? This piercing question leads us through a powerful exploration of Psalm 37:5, unveiling the profound relationship dynamic God invites us into.
The journey begins with an honest look at how many of us approach our relationship with God—like fair-weather friends who show up only when we need something. Drawing a compelling parallel between spiritual commitment and marriage, we examine how complacency creeps in, transforming what should be vibrant devotion into a mere routine or checklist. Just as spouses must consistently nurture their bond beyond simply "showing up," our relationship with God demands intentional, wholehearted engagement.
This message peels back the layers of what genuine commitment to God involves—surrendering every thought, desire, word, and action to His guidance. The beautiful paradox revealed in Psalm 37:5 shows that while we're called to commit our ways to the Lord, even our ability to do so comes from His grace working within us. It's a divine partnership where our trust activates His action, yet His enablement makes our trust possible.
Ready to move beyond a part-time faith? Join us as we discover what happens when we fully commit our ways to the One who has already committed Himself to us. Your relationship with God was never meant to be a Sunday-only arrangement—it's time to experience the fullness of walking in His ways every day.
Good morning, good afternoon, wherever you are in the world - Welcome to Grapevine Ministries.
I don't know whether I've mentioned it before. I'm pretty sure I have, but I'm currently reading the Bible again from cover to cover, and I've got this format that I use, because if you try and read the Bible as a novel, it's just not going to happen. It'll be all over the place and by the time you get to even Deuteronomy you'll have given up, but that's for another day, I suppose. So I come across this scripture and it's sort of like you know, I just got this drop into my spirit about. You know, I think the important thing is that you know, as good Christians, we all spend time in the Word. We all, you know, go to church or watch, you know podcasts, or we listen to church online podcasts or we listen to church online. But do we really commit ourselves to the way of the Lord? Do we trust him and will we do everything that we possibly can for him, because we know that he will do it to us? Psalm 37.5 says this Commit your way to the Lord, trust in him, and he will do this. Now, what does it mean by he will do this? Well, if you read on, it basically was saying he will do so many things for you because it is in his word. It's the same today, yesterday and forever. And he has promised. So you look at all the blessings and the promises throughout the scriptures and anything like me as you go through the Bible it doesn't matter whether it whether Old Testament or New Testament when you see God promising something or giving you something, you highlight that as a reminder of what his word is. But this particular passage in Psalm 37, but this particular passage in Psalm 37, it is truly a powerful call to surrender control of one's life to God and to trust in him and his plan.
Speaker 1:Jeremiah 29.11 says I know the plans I have for you, the plans to prosper you and have you in good health. Now, I mean, if you read that in the Amplified, so just if you've got your Bible with you or you've got your phone there, I want you to go to Jeremiah 29.11, right, but we're going to look at this from a totally different perspective. I want you to really understand what this is actually saying. All right, I think it's very important to, uh, be aware of the exact nature of the word and what it actually means. And you're thinking hang on, aren't we on Psalm 37? Yes, we are, but you'll see the relevance of that when we look at Jeremiah 29.11. So it's just after the Psalms 29 11. So it's just after the psalms and it's you know. So you look at jeremiah 29 11 right now.
Speaker 1:Jeremiah 29 11 in the new king james version just says this for I know the thoughts that I think towards you says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope Now that there is a promise. But if you look at this in the Amplified, this is what it actually reads Jeremiah 29, 11 in the Amplified right You'll see the big difference here. For I know the plans and thoughts that I have for you. Says the Lord plans for peace and well-being and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. Now, if you see there it is totally different the way that he's talking about you know he's not going to let anything harm you and he's going to do good things for you and it's one of his promises. But now if you go back to Psalm 37, right, 37.5, right, and you read this in the Amplified, it says commit your way to the Lord, trust in him also, and he will do it. He will make your righteousness your pursuit of right, standing with God like the light and your judgment like the shining of the noonday sun. And then it goes on to say be still before the Lord, wait patiently for him and entrust yourself to him. Now I just want to go back right to the very start of this right, and it says commit your way to the Lord, trust in him also. So the word also is already letting you know that he's already committed himself to you as a born-again spiritual believer. God has committed himself to you. You are a son or a daughter of the Most High and he has actually already committed himself to you and your life. What are you doing? He will act on our behalf. He's guiding and directing our path. So this verse here should be encouraging you to a life of faith where you actively choose to trust God's wisdom and timing over our own understanding, and I think that's fairly important there. I mean, I love the way that 37.5 describes our actions and God's actions and how they go together. So you commit your way to the Lord.
Speaker 1:This is an acknowledgement here in the Psalms that we are walking in a certain way. Every single one of us today will walk in a certain way. We will make decisions. We will make decisions, we will say things, we will write things, we will do things, we will think things, we will desire things and we will walk in a certain way, in a certain path. Today, now, I'll tell you the reason this sort of really resonated with me. Now, a lot of you that listen to this know that currently I'm waiting on a miracle and I can't walk. But if you look at Psalm 37, it's talking about us walking in this right, standing with him, and he's already walking in it with us. So he's looking at the perfect us, the pure us, the one which is obtaining and working towards being more Christ-like each and every day.
Speaker 1:Now, another thing that this verse reminds me of in particular is to honor God in all aspects of our lives. The psalm is saying commit that way to the Lord, says the Lord, I want you to be honored and glorified. In the way that I walk in and the path that I take, in every thought that I have and every desire that I possess, every word that I say and every single thing that I write down, I commit my way to you and I trust in you, and the only way that you can walk in God's way is by his grace at work in our lives. His grace at work in our lives, see, he gives us grace. See, our faith is based on the grace given to us by God, because we all know that we're not perfect and we fall short of the glory of God, because there was only one that was perfect and that was Jesus Christ. But God's way is the best way. Now we may not be able to achieve that, but we do everything we possibly can to be as close to that as we possibly can.
Speaker 1:I mean, I suppose it's a bit like a marriage, you know, and I could go on to, you know, into Revelation, where you know, and God's talking about the marriage and the meal and all that sort of stuff. But I'm not going there, I'm just giving you an analogy here. See, in a marriage, there's so many people that I've actually spoken to over years of being in the ministry that they actually seem to think that being committed to a marriage is just kind of being there and it's not. See, if you commit your way to the Lord and you trust in him, to trust in him, you know his way is good, his way is the best. You want to walk in his way, god makes my way your way. So trust in you. This is the essence of what it means to worship God.
Speaker 1:Going back to a marriage, just being there isn't enough. Okay, it's a two-way street. You've got to give and you've got to take. You know, I don't think there's well, with the exception of when I've been in hospital and unable to do that, I never, ever miss out saying I love you every time we go to bed. Right, even if I had arguments, you never let the sun go down on an argument. All right, you resolve it before it gets that far.
Speaker 1:A lot of people seem to think that marriages these days are a disposable commodity, and that's why sometimes you know when you're in church or even at um, you know celebrating someone's uh, anniversary, you know, and you look, we've been married like 40 years and everybody gets up and it's a big roar and everybody's excited and thinking it's like, it's almost like it's unexpected. See, the thing is, wow, when you get married, you get married for better, for worse, in sickness and in in health, to death. Do you part? Now, when you get married in your state, let's say hypothetically, you're in your young 20s.
Speaker 1:Okay, this is not a sermon on marriages or anything, but I'm just using this as an example to understand the relationship that we need to have as an individual with God. You can't have someone else's relationship. You can't have someone else praying for you. You can't have someone you know worshipping for you. You can't have someone else you know spending time alone with God. It's an individual thing. You need to build that relationship with your heavenly father. As a young, born-again Christian, you're on fire for God, same as a marriage. You're all over each other like a hot rash all over each other like a hot rash.
Speaker 1:But as the years go on, that complacency steps in and, before you know it, you are just having this de facto relationship that is not really in any way fully committed. Christians do this with their relationship with God. Many years ago, when I was very, very ill the first time, one of the things that I found that I was lacking was actually my relationship with my Heavenly Father. I was a young Christian. I did a few things and made sure I went to church and all that sort of stuff, and it was just a process that I went through. I wasn't fully committed.
Speaker 1:Right Now, if you're not fully committed to a relationship or you're not really fully committed to God. It becomes a one way relationship, and there's two things wrong with that. One is you're only calling on God when you need him and when you're having, you know, a prosperous time and your health is okay, your relationships are okay, everything's going well in this world. You forget about him or he becomes like a part-time friend. God's way is the best way.
Speaker 1:So what I'm saying is commit your way to the Lord, trust in him and trust in him because you know his way is good, his way is best. You want to walk in. His way is good, his way is best. You want to walk in his way. God makes your way his way, so do you trust in him? This is the essence of what it means to worship God. Essence of what it means to worship God and that it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ is to trust in him, because this is what sin is Right.
Speaker 1:Not trusting him, turning from his ways to our ways, basically, is a form of sinning and you think, oh, yeah, but I try to do this and I'll try to do that. You know trying is not achieving, and so trusting in him is saying I want to follow your ways, lord. I want every thought that I have and every desire and everything that I possess, and the word that I say and the things that I write, and every decision I make, everything I do. I want to glorify you and then I want to obey you and then I'm trusting in you that your ways are better than my ways. See, a lot of people get there and they just want to spend some time in prayer, and it's only for what they need in their life and it's only when there's something that's gone wrong in their life and they need God to step in for them them.
Speaker 1:You go to church and you know, just next time you are at church, maybe you're one of these people or, if you're there, you can actually see it unfold, and yet you're not aware of it. All right, how many people are there right at the start when praise and worship starts? How many people rock up just in time to hear the message and then, straight after once they've done the tithes and offerings, they're out the door, because there's several reasons for doing that, but I'm not going to go into that because that's between you and God. But what I am going to say is that you are missing out on the best parts of your life with him. See, there's only one thing that God can't do. I mean, and everybody's going to say, oh no, god can do everything. I know what you're saying, but I'm just putting this into perspective. I'm just putting this into perspective. So, hypothetically, okay, god can't praise and worship himself. The angels do it because they're programmed to do that. You and I have a free gift. Okay, and that's free will, and that means that we come to God because we want to, not because we have to and not because we're programmed.
Speaker 1:But sometimes, and I've found it a lot of times, praise and worship just really helps usher in his presence. And sometimes you can. You can go to churches, different churches, and I know there's so many different ones out there and everybody's going to say theirs is better than theirs, someone else's is, and so forth and such. I'm not being judgmental here, I'm not saying this in a derogative manner or not, but what I am saying is that sometimes you can go to church and people are just playing church and there's a bit of music, someone gives a sermon and then everybody goes home. But when you're there and you feel the presence of God, and then you feel like that pastor is speaking directly to you, maybe like I am to you today, maybe like I am to you today. I'm just saying that it's such an awesome feeling because you had that direct connection with God. It's almost like Jesus is sitting right next to you.
Speaker 1:See, psalm 37.5 tells us to walk in God's grace, and then verse 5 says this commit your way to the Lord, trust in him, and he will act. And you're like, wait a second. I thought this whole verse was about what I'm doing committing my way to God and trusting him. But verse 5 says he will act. And this is beautiful, right? This is the beauty of what we see all over the Bible. It's, in a sense, so much of the essence of Christianity, what it means to be a follower of Jesus.
Speaker 1:The only way you and I can talk to God is by his grace at work in our lives. The only way we can act in all the ways that we know are good and that we desire as we commit our ways to him. The only way we can do that is based on his power at work within us. At work within us, his spirit, his grace, his wisdom, his guarding, leading, guiding, comforting direction in our lives. He enables us. He enables us in our lives.
Speaker 1:So our action is totally dependent on his action, which is why we pray, because prayer is, maybe more than anything else in a Christian's life, the clear, evident expression of our needs for God's help for us to do that which we cannot do apart from him. See, psalm 37.5 is asking for God's guidance. We need, or should I say our need, for God to give us, grant us, lead us, guide us in every way, everything we need. So we pray, oh God, right now, today, together, based on Psalm 37.5, we commit our way to you. God, help us in every thought we have, desire and all of our possessions, our words. We speak our words, that we write, everything we do, every decision we make. We pray that you would be glorified, that we would obey you, out of our trust of you and God, we know the only way that's possible is by your grace, by your power and by your spirit working in us. And so we pray for your help this day. We pray for your help this day.
Speaker 1:I think it is very, very important to put everything in its right perspective, and sometimes we don't really comprehend the vastness of what God has for us and we almost try and put him in a box. We try and put him in a box in such a way that we underestimate his ability, and the way I look at that is that it doesn't matter what we ask God for in our lives. And granted, I'm talking about the difference between a need and a want. I guess there's a lot of things we want, but do we actually really need it in our life? Okay, but do we actually really need it in our life? Do not ever underestimate the vastness of what God can do for us. Grace is given to us so we can have that faith and that belief. See, hope builds faith, faith builds belief, and belief gets you to a stage where you know that. You know that. You know without a shadow of a doubt that God is not only working in your life. He is going to be active in your life for everything that your heart desires. Everything that your heart desires.
Speaker 1:The thing that I'm trying to get through to you here is that all the scriptures are there. See, a lot of people spend most of their time in the New Testament believing that when Jesus went to the cross and he said it was finished, that means he fulfilled all of the old testament prophecy and now we're under a new covenant, which we are under a new covenant, but the old testament is irrelevant. Okay, no, it's not irrelevant. See, the old testament is a type and shadow of the new, and if you study the scriptures closely enough, you will find a scripture okay. And if you've got one of those um, you know, like, uh, teaching bibles, you can actually read a scripture and then you'll see parallel scriptures to that scripture. Right. And so you go oh well, I've actually read this before. Oh, hang on, that's in the Proverbs, or that's in the Psalms, or perhaps it's in, you know, deuteronomy. But you're reading what they call a type and a shadow of that in the New Testament, because we are under a new covenant. But the Bible is relevant in every aspect of its, you know, entirety. And that's what you need to do. You need to make sure that you understand the word of god clearly.
Speaker 1:Now I just want to end with a little prayer for you today, and you know you could either listen to this, write it down and try and memorize it yourself, or you can make up your own in relation to this because, like I was saying before, it's. Your personal relationship is so much more important to you than anything else. Your relationship with your wife is different to the relationship that you have with your children, and your relationship with your your own parents is different to the relationship you have with your children, and your relationship with your own parents is different to the relationship you have with your wife. Now you can come into corporate prayer and both you and your wife, or you and your spouse, or you and your parents, can actually pray together in unity. Come into an agreeance about things, because nothing is better than corporate prayer. If it says, if two or more agree on any one thing here on earth, it should be done here on earth as it is in heaven. Right, but there is something rather unique about your personal relationship with God you spending time alone in prayer, just one-on-one, not because you're keeping secrets from anybody, but just building that personal relationship with the Father.
Speaker 1:Personal relationship with the Father.
Speaker 1:That, I believe, with the exception of prayer, is probably the most important thing that you need to be doing in your Christian walk.
Speaker 1:Now I'm going to finish on this, and this is what we're going to pray, dear Heavenly Father, today, we pray for your help to walk in your ways today to live with trust, and you keep us from trusting ourselves.
Speaker 1:We need to trust you, lord. We pray, save us all day long from ourselves and sin From trusting in ourselves. God, help us to keep our eyes fixed on you and we say pray that we pray, psalm 37.5. We commit our ways to you and we trust in you right now, in prayer, we trust and that trust is based on your word that you will act in our lives today and each and every day, and we, we ask this in Jesus' name, amen. You know His way is our way. Commit yourself to the Lord, make sure that you spend that time with Him, because there are so many things that are fenced in and hidden and he wants to reveal it to you in such a personal way. So, father, god, I pray for everybody out there today, lord, that they understand the importance of prayer in their life and they use this to help them with their Christian walk. Well, that'll be it for today and I will talk to you next time on Grapevine Ministries. Bye for now.
