Watch Your Walk (Part 1)

Blessed is the one
    who does not walk in step with the wicked
    or stand in the way that sinners take
    or sit in the company of mockers, - Psalm 1:1

"Blessed is the" ... seems to be a direct link to the way Jesus preached on the Beatitudes on the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5.

And isn't this an answer to what everyone seems to want so much?  Doesn't everyone seem to ask, "How can I be blessed?"  They may not ask so directly with those words, but they ask, "How can I make more money?"; "How can I feel better?"; "How can I be happier?"; "How can I be more successful - have more purpose - be more complete as a person?"  In other words, "How can I be blessed?"  Only God can complete us inside, give us our purpose, define our success, fill us with joy by filling us with Himself, show us what is valuable and what is not.

The Psalm suggest the first step is to avoid the ways of the wicked, don't walk in their steps, don't listen to their guidance or wisdom (NKJV).  Don't be where they stand or go to places that they go.  Don't sit in their company.  The sense of this verse is don't partake in the same evil actions, evil music, evil entertainment, evil words of those who don't know God participate. If someone is telling you how great you are and its not your best friend or your Mom, don't listen to it.  If there's a show on TV and it has content you don't agree with, turn it off.  If people are talking negatively about others, don't participate with them.  These are practical actions and there are many more.  In fact, if you are watchful for them, you will have several encounters everyday that you will need to avoid, move away from, decide against.

“The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light.  But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!" - Matthew 6:22-23

When we walk with evil, talk with evil, see what evil sees, and hear what evil hears, the perception of our reality changes.  We change and the perception of all that we are and all that everyone else is and all that happens to us or all that we can do changes and it changes in a very deep dark way that passes common sense and understanding.  Of course, it makes sense to the ungodly, but not to the Godly.  This new perception takes you away from God's Word and away from faith, until you end up in a pig pen eating pig food, and wondering how you got so far away from who you know you are to be and from Who's you know you belong too.