January 7

SELEH!
by Ray Prinzing

"Salvation belongeth to the Lord: Thy blessing is upon thy people."                 [Psalm 3:8]

The word "selah" is frequently found in the Psalms, which the Amplified translation gives as "PAUSE AND CALMLY THINK OF THAT." This is timely advice, and we need to have more "selah times" when we seriously consider and remember the works of the Lord, of His glorious plan of salvation working in us, even in the nitty-gritty of our everyday living.

Christendom, through its many religious institutions, has caused me to become very negative-conscious, sin-conscious, devil-conscious, until people have much difficulty when they desire to become God-conscious.  To un-learned all the nonsense that has been taught about the power of the devil, and the inferred weakness of God, requires some diligent effort on the part of the believer progressing into truth.  We sing with joy and reverence, "how great Thou art!" and seek to develop a deeper consciousness of Christ, of His supremacy - His Lordship - His total control over all that touches our lives.  Then when new troubles arise, some disaster seems to engulf us, far too often the first thought people have is "the devil did it."  Thus they forget that God is ordering our steps through the day, that He controls the interplay of good and evil according to the need of our development into full spiritual maturity.  Hence, it is essential that we learn to "set our minds on things above."  (Colossians 3:2).

As a part of this fixing our mind upon Christ, we need to often "pause and calmly think"  on His goodness, His salvation freely given to us.  I like the word "calmly" in this thinking process.  Emotions and feelings have their place in our experience, but not to the extent that we fail to gain a lasting, solid, clear thought of what God is doing.  "For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he." [Proverbs 23:7].  "His heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord." [Psalm 112:7].